Pokemon Typechange
by E.I.G
Summary: Alexa Larch agreed to help her father with his research into pokemon changing types during the break between Leagues. Her team was more than willing to try out being something else.
1. Clearwater Geode

\- Clearwater Geode -

"Research log of Assistant Alexa Larch regarding verification of prior research into items found to induce physical changes in pokemon, specifically those causing changes to the type of a pokemon without producing the effects of an evolution," the young assistant stated into the microphone of the recorder as her team of Pokemon shuffled around the lab. Her father had made her promise to help out for the few months between Leagues after her early knockout the previous year.

Collecting a mostly round rock, half the size of her head with a good sized hole drilled into the top, she continued, "Item 1, a Clearwater Geode. Selected for initial test due to the ease of use. Specific example was recovered from," she shuffled some papers aside with the hand holding the rock next to where it had sat, "the sea floor near Sootopolis in the wake of the Aqua/Magma incident."

Alexa's Charizard took the opportunity to shuffle up to sniff the rock. Seeming interested in what it was he rumbled questioningly at her. "According to reports geodes like this can be used to create a drink that causes a pokemon to develop the Water type," she said to both the recorder and her Fire type in explanation.

At this he let out a curious huff, and Alexa couldn't help but chuckle at the pokemon. "Alright, someone has to try it anyway," she told him setting down the microphone. Getting out a water bottle from a nearby fridge she filled the rock, the water taking on a blue glow within revealing the center as being hollow coated with clear crystals. Finding a glass she poured the still glowing liquid out and set down the rock. The fire type followed her motions, but did not move to drink the liquid yet. Instead he stood with his eyes looking at her for permission.

"Just a second," she told him picking the mike back up, "Initial test is on a volunteer Charizard using bottled water poured into the geode and then into an empty glass." Then she indicated it was alright to try with a nod.

Charizard carefully lifted the glass and drank the glowing water quickly. As he set the glass down his body began to change. First was a change to his coloration, with his belly altering to a light blue and teal stripes appearing along his back. Next was the major change as his wings altered dramatically, the thin membranes bulging out and the overall structure moving inward to become a large pair of mobile fins. His fingers lengthened slightly and a thin webbing formed between them, with similar changes occurring with the claws of his feet. Finally the end of his tail expanded outward into a fin, with the tailflame changing to a green fire that spread to cling more tightly over the entire new fin.

Alexa did her best to describe the process as it happened. The speed and extent of the change surprised her, and she felt somewhat worried about the awkward movements of her friend as he inspected the changes to his form.

Her Kingler made a chittering sound that was her form of laughing at the sight and moved closer to inspect her teammate. The altered Charizard seemed to take offense to the minor joke at his change, and with a thoughtful look flashing across his face it took a breath in preparation. With obviously more motion than necessary he spat at the crab, a short blast of boiling water emerging and splashing the tile floor next to the natural Water type.

"Volunteer is able to produce water type attack immediately after change," she said for the recording in a bit of a daze. Her two pokemon both looking more interested in the success than continuing their minor disagreement. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked, receiving a happy growl from the temporary Water type.

Although some of that obvious joy was lost as he made a failed attempt to flap his new fins as he would use his wings to hop. However, his quick recovery to simply walk to the nearest window seemed to distract him from the loss of his Flying type. He motioned outside, to where the town pond was situated, and proceeded to move his new tailfin in an exaggerated fashion.

"You just wanted to try swimming, didn't you?" she asked with a chuckle before turning off the recording. "Alright, I guess we can take a bit of a break for some practical experiments."

Alexa watched as her Kingler and currently Fire/Water type Charizard practically raced to the small pond at the edge of town. She shared a look of amusement with her Grass type, a Bellossom, who had decided to join in the trip outside. Walking calmly towards the pond she watched as the former Flying type made a clumsy dive into the water. Bellossom looked over the spectacle and found a spot some distance away to sit and sun herself. The Grass type settled in to watch her teammate experiment with his altered form.

"It really isn't like evolving is it?" she asked the partly submerged Charizard. His response was to shake his head strongly, and then turn to look over his tail. The fin at the end was still covered closely with a green flame that seemed to burn just fine under the water. As the fire type toyed with splashing the fiery appendage in and out Alexa opened the notebook she had brought and began to write down observations on the change.

Kingler took this opportunity to send a Water Gun at Charizard. The small blast of water washed over his head making the Fire type turn surprised but not really hurt by the weak attack. A clicking challenge was made by the crab, and she quickly motioned to two rocks at the edges of the pond. "You want to try a race?" Alexa asked the pure Water type, getting a nod from both of the currently aquatic pokemon.

With a chuckle Bellossom contributed by growing a pair of flowered vines and warping them around the start and end rocks. Kingler quickly scuttled to the first one, and then sent a series of impatient clicks towards Charizard. The reptile took his time swimming through the water to the starting spot, obviously trying out how to move with his new features. This brief trial period had Kingler make an upset face, and Alexa could only laugh realizing the crab had wanted him to still be completely unfamiliar with how to accomplish the task.

Once the Fire type made it to the rock Alexa whistled to get their attention and raised her hand into the air. "Ready? Three. Two. One. Go!" she shouted out as she dropped her hand sending the two pokemon surging forward. Kingler easily crossed the small distance sending a spray of water into the air and skidding out onto the ground next to the target rock. Charizard moved less easily, although still at great speed.

Unfortunately he wasn't quite capable of keeping a straight line and ended up well off course. Stopping just before the edge of the pond some distance from the goal he reoriented and set off again. Still missing he slowed down considerably on the third try, now working more towards learning how to steer with his large fins than trying to complete the race.

Kingler seeing this chittered out in victory, and she followed it up with another challenging click. Charizard considered the idea as he finally drifted to the location of the finish rock. "Bellossom, can you judge for them now?" Alexa asked writing in the notebook about the movements of her Fire type. Seeing the two pokemon turn to her the Grass type nodded and with a shout raised her own arm.

The two pokemon traveled back and forth over the pond, occasionally changing rules on their own and experimenting with the capabilities of the transformed pokemon. Charizard's movement improved over the runs until he was easily keeping up with the born Water type. Kingler's speed even seemed to improve a bit over the course of the attempts, although it became clear that adding turns to the race only made it harder on the crab as Charizard's fins were far more easily able to make even very sharp corners.

Checking the time Alexa saw that it had been almost 50 minutes since the transformation. "Alright Charizard, you should come out now." At his questioning growl she continued, "It only lasts about an hour, and I don't think you want to be out there when you change back." With a grumble the pokemon emerged from the pond and moved to the grassy area nearby.

After a moment of just standing in the field the new Water type began to try out his attacks. Alexa took notes as he spat out a good sized Scald attack towards the ground nearby. The range seemed fairly good and the steaming water hit with some force. A Flamethrower attempt was much shorter range than normally, but the green flames that resulted seemed a bit hotter. Wing Attack seemed much less powerful, but was still available as an option despite the loss of the Flying type. This series of attacks continued for a while, with Kingler joining in to try and teach Bubble to the reptile.

Soon however Charizard stopped and let out a confused growl. His body then began to change again, returning to its original form. The extension and webbing of his fingers and toes were the first to recede back to their previous form. Then his large fins thinned and extended back outward into wings once again. Finally as his coloration returned to normal the fin on his tail collapsed inward into just a thin tailtip and the flame bloomed outward into a large red fire.

Seeing that he was back to normal Charizard let out a dissapointed growl. He flexed his fingers and wings, and then with a slightly sad expression looked at the flame on his tail. "You really liked being a Water type didn't you?" Alexa asked him as she finished writing down the transformation.

Charizard gave her a slow nod, before perking up and looking towards the lab. He then made a chuffing sound and pointed to it with a claw. "Wait, do you want to try again already?" she asked surprised, and then with a bit of thought continued, "Let me guess, you want us to keep the Geode for ourselves?" He nodded eagerly, and even flapped his wings a bit. "Alright, I guess you can try again, but I'll have to ask dad about keeping it."

Despite how that wasn't a guarantee that he would get the stone Charizard let out a happy burst of flame and took off flying towards the lab. 


	2. Groudon Ashes

\- Groudon Ashes -

"Item 2, good sized bag of treated Groudon Ashes. The ash itself is fairly common now after all the eruptions he caused," Alexa began looking over the well tied bag that covered the palm of her hand. This time her fire type was entirely uninterested, standing off in a corner of the lab still looking over the Geode from the previous day. The rest of her team was far more interested now having seen the Charizard's drastic transformation.

"Contact with sufficient quantities will improve the elemental attacks of Ground, Rock, and Fire type pokemon," she continued into the recorder as she looked over the potential volunteers among her pokemon, "Other kinds of pokemon when exposed to that much of the ash will take on one of those three types." Her Rhydon actually looked a bit disappointed that it was only a stat boost item for him. Kingler had been paying attention while she had been setting up, but seemed to lose interest at the mention of the Legendary of the Continents, and started to scuttle over to Charizard after hearing the types involved. However her Bellossom only looked more interested and Heracross, her final pokemon, was obviously thinking hard about the options.

Moving the microphone away she addressed the remaining two pokemon directly, "Ok guys, this is a bit more serious than the one for Water type was. These ashes are supposed to last around a month, and dad said I shouldn't be trying to use other stuff on someone who is already effected by one of these things. I don't have a way to get you back to normal early if you don't like the new type." Bellossom suddenly frowned, and with a thoughtful look shook her head. "I also can't gaurante what type you get when it happens," she said now focused on her Bug type, "Dad said he had some other pokemon who already agreed if I needed them, so don't feel bad about saying 'no'."

The large beetle still looked thoughtful. After a moment of contemplation he turned to Rhydon and asked the Ground/Rock type a question. This led to a short conversation of rumbles and clicks that Alexa looked at bemused. Listening in Charizard gave some unprompted growls, presumably some details about the Fire type but possibly some insight into the kind of transformation as well.

"Well Heracross, does their advice help with the decision?" she asked after the conversation died down a bit. The bug looked her in the eyes for a moment, and then nodded resolutely. "So you want to try?" He responded with another nod and stepping forward to be directly in front of her. Bringing the microphone back she opened the bag and began to speak for the recording, "Volunteer for test is a Heracross."

Heracross reached into the bag and pulled out a good amount of the dusty material, the ash was mostly black with flakes of dark red scattered within. Moments after taking the claw-full the ash began to sink into his chitin causing the seams to glow with a deep red. Alexa began to worry as the glow spread down his arm in cracking lines along his shell, but Heracross didn't seem to be in pain as he watched his body seem to almost split. His arm spines were marked with glowing spirals and burst out small flames as it finished moving along the limb and reached his abdomen. Once there his entire body seemed to expand for a moment as the glowing lines appeared all across it in one burst of smokey flame. The remaining spines on his body gained the same fiery swirls, with a particularly intricate series of markings covering his horn and producing a notable heat. Finally, the rest of his shell darkened into a nearly black shade of blue.

"Are you feeling okay?" Alexa asked as she finished a halting description of the change, not even taking the time to move her arm so the question didn't get caught for the recording. In response Heracross attempted to make the motion of a fist pump, but the stumbling move showed a loss of physical prowess in addition to releasing an unintended burst of flame.

His trainer, shocked by the sudden flames, stumbled backwards sending the bag of ashes tumbling to the ground. Acting quickly Rhydon pulled Bellossom away from the heavy dust. At the same time Charizard moved to grab the falling Bug/Fire type before he stumbled onto anything flammable. Kingler spat water in a light mist to help the ashes settle away from her location, careful to avoid Rhydon as he moved their Grass type teammate into the newly created safe area.

"Heracross?" the trainer asked with some worry from the center of the pile of dust. The transformed pokemon let out a dismal click of acknowledgement as he moved slowly to regain his footing. Charizard let out a grumbling growl and began to poke at the new Fire type's various markings and spines. Seeing that the two of them seemed to be working on the task of dealing with new abilities Alexa began to scoop up the spilled ash. Rhydon joined in quickly, starting from the area closest to the others and working his way towards his trainer. For the next few minutes the four of them continued to clean up the fallout of the test.

"Alright guys," she started after getting the last of the now slightly damp ash back into the pouch, "I think we are going to take a bit of a break from trying anything else until Heracross is back up to par." The various pokemon made noises of agreement, their mood diminished by the chaos.

The Fire type Bug surged forward into a clumsy Fire Punch that was easily blocked by the webbed claw of the partly Water type reptile. The two altered pokemon took a deliberate step back from each other. The large Fire/Water pokemon stood on its webbed claws and flexed its large back fins in preparation for the next attempt. Across from it the dark, nearly black, shelled bug altered its stance, the red cracks covering its body leaking out heat notably.

The bug then opened his mouth wide and sent out a stuttering wave of flames that splashed over the ground more than it approached his foe. The partial water type gave a dull look at the failed flamethrower, and put out the small flames that resulted with a burst of steaming water. The stumbling response to the close blasts of water left the beetle sprawling and putting out an even hotter burst of heat.

Alexa looked on the training session with a bit of worry as he picked himself up again. Heracross was not doing well with the previous day's change in his secondary type, although watching his movements the trainer did think that the Fire type was the least disruptive of the three options to her former Fighting type. Rock would have made his movements even stiffer which was one of his main problems with the result, and the Ground type also was not known for the mobility his previous Fighting type gave him. Her whole team was present outside the lab, and all of them were upset that despite the warnings and considerations their friend still ended up in an undesirable form.

The beetle's movement had slowly been getting less jerky, but the heat it was producing had still made her natural Fire type push the other transformed pokemon to get more control. Alexa personally thought that stopping the random bursts of flame had been great progress, but reluctantly admitted she still couldn't get close enough to comfort her pokemon just yet. "Heracross?" she asked timidly looking at the how the sun was setting, "Do you want to keep going, or should we wait for tomorrow?" The bug turned to her, and after a moment made a motion to his pokeball on her belt.

Returning her pokemon with a sigh she turned to his sparing partner for the time being. Unlike Heracross's situation her Charizard had not only adapted to his alternate type, but enjoyed it enough to give an impassioned growling speech to her father about how he should get to keep the item that caused it. The increased resistance to Fire type moves given by having Water type had proven useful against the uncontrolled bursts of flame that had occurred throughout the day's training. "What do you think, will he be okay?" she asked the Charizard as he padded up on his webbed claws.

The reptile echoed her sigh and took a look over the grassy field. Her Bellossom moved across the ground in front of them re-growing the chared patches. With a dissatisfied grumble the pokemon nodded. "He will but it will take a while?" A stronger nod answered and the pokemon gave a sad huff towards the pond nearby.

Looking over the other transformed pokemon Alexa took in his aquatic form. "It isn't your fault you know," she told him, "Just because you like your change doesn't mean that you pushed him to try himself. Ending up with a form he doesn't like isn't because of you. It was his decision to go along with it and none of us had any idea what it would actually be like for him to stop being a Fighting type." The Charizard looked her in the eye for a moment listening to his teammates give mild sounds confirming her words. He nodded and then he made an exaggerated pointing of his arm that seemed to say that it also applied to her.

"Yeah, I know," she responded with a mirthless chuckle, "but in that case it is still my responsibility. It's the trainer's job to make sure their pokemon are able to fight safely. The pokemon themselves and everyone else around them." This declaration got an angry huff from the pokemon, complete with some steam, as he pointed to the still blackened patches of grass. "Okay, okay," she said with a touch of actual humor, "You made it your responsibility too."

A deep rumble from behind her showed that Rhydon felt he should be included somehow, followed soon after by a clicking sound from Kingler. Bellossom grew a small patch of flowers in the next burn-mark, and fixed Alexa with a dark look. "Fine," she said with an exasperated laugh, "We all have some responsibility with helping him." 


	3. Crystal Syrup

\- Crystal Syrup -

"Alright guys, what do you think. Are we up to try another one?" Alexa asked the assembled pokemon. Heracross had finally after two full days of work managed a temperature low enough for her to touch the altered Bug type again. He stood near the back of the team who were all standing with looks of resolve. They all answered with a set of growls and clicks in the affirmative. Hearing that she turned to the small bottles in a rack on the desk and began the recording.

"Test item 3, Crystal Syrup, a potent sugary liquid that can act as a powerful medicine for Grass types. This batch was made from," Alexa blinked at the document detailing the items, "Wow, this was sap from twenty different Grass type species. Making it isn't hard, but finding that many different willing pokemon is the tough part." Bellossom was looking at the small bottles with visible wonder, while the rest of the team seemed to have caught onto the end result of this transformation and were discussing the option amongst themselves.

"When a pokemon that isn't a Grass type drinks some they are transformed into a living plant for about a week. Naturally this also makes them into a Grass type themselves." Once again two of her team were illegible for the test, although the reason for Heracross was that he was already transformed. Of the others Charizard looked vaguely interested, but kept glancing to the geode that now was rarely far from him. Kingler was again disinterested, and had moved to chat with the Bug/Fire type at the back of the group. Rhydon let her finish speaking and then took a step forward and responded with a growl.

Nodding a bit nervously Alexa took out one of the bottles and held it out to the pokemon. "Pokemon volunteer for the test is a Rhydon." He took the small container carefully and stood for a moment just looking at it, and then opened it carefully releasing a sweet scent. He tried to quickly drink the substance, but the thick syrup took a moment to flow out.

There was a crackling sound soon after from the Ground type's body. His spiral horn changed first, taking on a brown color and changing to a pair of twisted branches that continued backwards up his head to include the area under his eyes. Next the grey stony plates across his body began to flake apart, the resulting thin pieces changing into small plentiful leaves. The light brown plates across his chest turned darker and softer, converting from scales to firm fertile soil. His legs and tail followed his horn in becoming wooden, the long thick appendage changing into a massive root speckled with more of the rich soil that most of his body was becoming. The now wooden nature of his teeth was revealed by him opening his dirt lined mouth in wonder while he looked at the small wooden claws sticking out of his now bushy hands. The end result of the change did not alter his overall shape, but his physical nature had changed from a reptilian creature to a reptile topiary filled with roots embedded throughout a large mass of soil.

Stopping the recording Alexa moved around her pokemon looking over the changes. "So do you feel alright?" she asked standing a bit away. In response Rhydon stretched himself out, twisting and turning letting out wooden creaks and sending tiny bits of loam onto the floor. His range of motion was much larger than before the change, and his movements seemed much lighter and faster. With great care he moved closer to her and nodded his now leafy head.

Seeing that he was fine Bellossom ran up to the new Grass type and began to excitedly go over his new body. The larger pokemon chuckled at the attention, a sound that was lighter and more woody than before. He easily let the life-long Grass pokemon lead him through some simple steps around the room. Alexa was amused to see Bellossom was carefully keeping him on the edge of the sunlight streaming in from the windows. The smaller Grass type finally moved him into a patch of it after giving him a bit of time to get used to his new lighter weight.

The moment his leaves were touched by the light his body tensed, and then a massive grin broke out on his face. With a quick turn he was standing with his back to the window spread out to take in as much light as possible. Across the room Heracross gave a huff of smoke, but looking at her other transformed pokemon Alexa saw he had a bit of a grin on his face at the antics of the newly transformed Ground type. "I take it sunlight feels good like that?" she asked Rhydon somewhat rhetorically, getting a happy rustle of leaves in response.

Alexa wrote in a notebook outside in the sunlight as her pokemon once more adapted to a change in form. Rhydon was getting used to the differences much faster than Heracross had, although still slower than Charizard's enthusiastic example. However, the main delay was that the now Grass type spending quite a bit of time just enjoying the sunshine on his new leaves. Bellossom had been alternating between pushing him to experiment and enjoying having another Grass type to interact with as the team spent the day in the sun.

Right now the two of them had moved on to using Grass type attacks. Barrages of Razor Leaf were currently spinning from the two of them into the side of one rocks at the edge of the pond. Alexa was rather surprised to see that Rhydon's attacks were a bit more accurate than his teammate's as they knocked small chips off the surface. Bellossom's attacks on the other hand were impacting with more strength, some of the thin leaves remaining embedded in the rock.

Seeing how there was now a good sized cluster of such leaves in the rock next to a growing depression Alexa decided they needed to move on. "Alright you two, you're doing great there, but we kinda don't have anyone to replace that if it breaks on us. How about you try something else?"

The simple question stopped the two pokemon and left them momentarily confused. While Bellossom quickly realized what her trainer was saying, Rhydon simply stared at her before motioning to himself. The movement brought one of his wooden claws inside of the leafy portion of his chest as he attempted to tap a plate that was no longer solid. Feeling the two parts of his changed body brush against each other he looked down, and then let out a huff as he realized why he wasn't the option for fixing that sort of problem for the time being. He then took a moment to look over the foliage of his body in quiet contemplation.

Shaking his head the Ground/Grass type gave a series of woody growls to Bellossom and began to move across the field. The light jog he took was much faster than his previous form's lumbering gait, and a good portion of his morning had been spent simply learning to deal with the loss of weight caused by changing into bushy leaves wrapped around a core of soft dirt. His Ground type attacks had remained much the same, the soft soil inside of his body even aiding to some extent with their use. The core of earth was also home to a fairly solid mass of interconnected roots that seemed about as strong as his old body while being considerably lighter.

Bellossom quickly caught up with the traveling pokemon and sent a couple of light jabs in his direction, the two of them moving to practice physical attacks. His own counters to her blows were quick, much faster than before the change and easily moving to intercept the various light attacks. They were also powerful, and Alexa could see that, while the natural Grass type was holding back greatly, Rhydon was trying to determine how much power he could get into the blocks and blows, sometimes overdoing his own movements in an attempt to both test his moves and refine them at the same time. She flinched a bit as an overly fast counter sent Bellossom's small fist skidding deep into Rhydon's leaf covered limb, far enough to snap small twigs and send dirt falling out of the arm. He let out a pained cry at the damage, the most major injury he had taken since the change.

Walking over quickly she inspected the wound. "It doesn't look too bad," she said turning the large pokemon's limb in her hands. She carefully pushed aside the resulting small gap in the leaves to look at the root filled soil beneith. "From what I've seen of Grass types this should grow back really quick," she told him calmly. "You need to remember that you aren't exactly armored anymore. The dirt and roots are pretty tough, but that's like your muscle. You should be trying to deflect or avoid hits more than take them, put that new agility you have to use," she continued while rotating the limb carefully but greatly to show just how much it would bend, "and you should be more careful too. You may be doing well but remember how we had to work with Heracross' ability to move around before we could help him get his temperature down. Focus on getting specific things down before trying them together."

Nodding thoughtfully the pokemon moved a bit away and motioned to his fellow Grass type. Alexa moved back to her previous spot while the two started up a new exercise of Bellossom sending moderately fast leaves at Rhydon while he tried to dodge them. The former Rock type also seemed to be attempting to hold his surface leaves in solid sheets when the projectiles came close. Alexa wasn't sure how well that would work against a more physical attack, but felt that it stood a chance of deflecting the incommoding leaves so let the two continue without another interruption. 


	4. Rivals

\- Rivals -

"Hey there Alex," a voice said from behind the trainer sitting in a field enjoying another sunny day. She looked up from the document resting on her thick notebook and saw the face of her childhood friend, and the rival trainer who knocked her out of her first League just weeks before.

"Josh, I thought you were traveling to Hoenn to try their League," Alexa replied with a smile. She set the paperwork down onto the small pile next to her and stood up.

"Well, they're still a couple of weeks away, and I didn't want to leave for a different region without seeing my old friend," he said with a smile. One of the pokeballs on his belt then proceeded to shake noticeably. "Not to mention some of my team wants a rematch, you nearly managed to take us out. What do you say, one last match before I head out?"

Looking over the field with its sparse bushes and out to the nearby pond Alexa considered the question. "I've been helping dad with a project lately, so things are a bit weird right now," she answered a bit nervously. "Is there anyone in particular that wants to fight?" she asked looking at the still shaking ball, "My whole team isn't up for a battle right now."

"Golem thinks he's figured out what to do about that Charizard of yours, and I think Vaporeon wants to show off a bit." The other trainer grimaced a bit before continuing, "He got to fight this really strong Rock type trainer just about on his own, so I'm a bit worried he let it get to his head."

Alexa nodded at that looking her rival in the eye. "I think this might work then, go ahead and bring them out. Do you mind if I try and take some notes on the fight?"

Pulling two pokeballs off his belt Josh thought about the request. "Doesn't your dad research pokemon that change type when they evolve?" he asked releasing a spherical Rock type pokemon from one of them, his large pokemon looking around the clearing before setting his gaze on the sky. "I remember him getting you a Sun Stone, but I didn't think any of your pokemon could evolve again since the last time we met," he said still holding the ball that had been shaking before. He held it still for a moment longer waiting for the motion to stop before letting out the pokemon inside. The emerging Vaporeon stretched out his body and began to clean its forelimbs in an arrogant fashion.

"Well, actually he's interested in changes of type in general," she replied looking at the nearest bush, "he's got me trying out some strange things." The bush proceeded to rise up, revealing it had a shape resembling a large reptile and large amounts of dirt throughout his center. The newly revealed pokemon let out a deliberate yawn and lazily looked at the now surprised Water type as he froze in mid-lick. The transformed Rhydon let out a leafy chuckle, and then turned to the pond and gave a yell. A grumble returned and the surface was broken by a large orange reptile with obvious aquatic features. The Charizard seemed annoyed as it exited the water, the entire finned end of his tail burning a strong green flame, but on seeing the dumbstruck Rock/Ground type gave a chuckle of his own.

The other trainer blinked at the two pokemon. "Is that Rhydon? Why is he a plant?" he asked a bit incredulusly, "Is that Charizard?" The second question was far more surprised as the Fire type pokemon moved closer. Josh's pokemon seem similarly surprised by their changed foes.

"Turns out there are some really rare things out there that can change a Pokemon's type temporarily," Alexa answered while picking her notebook and pen up from the pile. Her two pokemon moved up to stand on either side of her facing the rival trainer.

With a laugh the young man turned to his Water type. "Well Vaporeon, still eager for that rematch?" Josh asked his cat-like pokemon as the Water type simply looked over the large Grass type standing opposite him. "How about you Golem?" The round pokemon nodded looking at the finned Fire type across from him with a smile. "I think this will be interesting, let's go Alex!"

"Alright then. Charizard, you're up first." The temporary water type moved forward at the same time as the opposing Rock type. Once they were standing in front of their trainers the two pokemon locked eyes and waited for a signal to begin.

"Rock Throw," Josh instructed after a moment.  
"Scald him!" Alexa said at nearly the same time.

The Fire/Water type moved a touch faster in sending out a spray of boiling water. The target pokemon was in the final motions of sending large rocks in the other direction when the attack hit. The Water attack knocked the Rock/Ground type back slightly with a hiss, but the heat of the attack contributed little against the thick stones of his outer body.

Charizard's response to the incoming projectiles was a mistaken attempt to flap out of the way. The instinctual attempt to fly left him directly in the line of fire, and the rocks impacted heavily. He was less knocked around by the stones than he would have been in the past due to his slightly more robust form, but the trade was not in his favor compared to his thick skinned opponent.

With the opening move favoring his pokemon Josh tried pressing the attack. "He's grounded, try a Magnitude." Golem quickly slammed a foot into the ground to unleash the variable attack. The area shook a fair amount and a few shallow hills of dirt shot up around the Fire type.

"Try to keep the pressure up, see if you can try something bigger," Alexa suggested to her pokemon while fumbling with her pen. Charizard moved from the torn ground quickly, making his way towards the pond. He shot out more quick bursts of hot water, hitting the large plates of rock to some effect.

Golem responded with another attempt at Magnitude as he made to chase the other pokemon. This time the shaking was somewhat more powerful but the moving Fire/Water type was able to turn his resulting stumble into a slide along the grass to the edge of the pond. Seeing this he prepared to send more rocks towards the other pokemon.

Ending the slide with a forceful jump Charizard made a perfect dive into the water as the first rocks started to pelt him. The rest of the barrage was left splashing nearby uselessly. Using his altered form he easily made a long turn under the surface back towards his opponent while staying out of the path of sinking stones. Rising quickly he caught a large amount of water between his back fins and sent it surging out at Golem.

Seeing the makeshift Dive attack coming toward him Golem curled into a ball and took advantage of the small rise in the ground his earlier attacks had made to help start rolling backwards out of the way. This proved too slow to fully escape the large surge of water and the Rock pokemon was utterly soaked by the attack.

As the wounded pokemon stopped rolling on the wet grass a panting Charizard emerged from the pond. The aquatic reptile took a weak rock thrown by his dizzy foe with a grunt, but returned with a final Scald that hit Golem in the head making him let out a hiss of pain.

"That's enough," Josh said from his position, "He's managed this one Golem." The soaked pokemon nodded sadly at the words, and was gratefully returned to his pokeball.

"Yeah, but if he wants to keep going with this we need more practice," Alexa responded as Charizard let himself fall onto the mud by the pond's edge. The Fire/Water type responded after a moment of resting with a determined growl.

"Is he going to?" her rival asked surprised looking over the tired pokemon.

"Yeah, which means he needs to know how to move and we both need to figure out how to handle stuff that he could just fly away from before," she replied looking at the large wet patch of ground where the Dive attack had hit. "Give me a moment to get this stuff out of the way, I doubt the next fight is going to be dryer."

With the papers moved well out of the way the trainers turned to their other pokemon. Vaporeon seemed to have gotten over his shock during the past battle and was now eying the Ground/Grass type opposite him with consideration. Rhydon was mostly watching his teammate move to a more comfortable position to lay by the side of the pond, but still had an eye on his future opponent.

"Well, I guess whatever your dad found now works pretty well," Josh said, "I'm actually wondering how this will go now." He motioned to his Water type that it was time for the next fight.

Rhydon turned to face the pokemon and moved forward to place himself so that Alexa could also see the rival pokemon. "Should be interesting, Vaporeon was rather tough last I saw him," Alexa said.

The cat-like pokemon raised his head to preen at the praise. "Hey, don't let her distract you," his trainer told the arrogant pokemon, "Are you ready?"

The two pokemon both answered to indicate they were, and before anything else was said Vaporeon sent out a fast moving blast of water. Rhydon moved to the side quickly, but still had his arm clipped sending a few leaves falling.

"Rhydon, keep him at a distance, remember last time," Alexa yelled to her pokemon. The transformed pokemon responded to a second powerful water gun splattering against his leg with a barrage of spinning leaves.

Vaporeon did not immediately move to dodge instead trying to closely maneuver around it. However, the spinning leaves moved more quickly than he expected taking the Grass type attack on his shoulder. The Water type let out a surprised yowl at the impact before sending a larger but slower attack towards his target. "Vaporeon, stay mobile, you can't take those hits," Josh said a bit exasperated, "He's got an advantage on you now."

The larger ball of water missed the leafy pokemon to splash harmlessly behind him. Rhydon took the moment his opponent took to ready another to send out a larger barrage of leaves.

The water type moved to avoid the short cloud of projectiles by launching himself up and to the side. He landed and then seemed to collapse, his body flowing for a moment with his feet sliding apart into a short puddle as he began to use Acid Armor. "Keep the attacks coming, Vaporeon!"

"You're going to need solid hits, try Vine Whip," Alexa said watching the water type resume the faster projectiles, "Absorb would be better if you can manage."

Rhydon nodded as he moved to avoid another fast moving blast of water, although it still clipped more leaves off his body. With an instant of concentration he swung his arm creating a thick green vine covered with patches of loose soil.

Vaporeon's body contorted in an attempt to dodge the projectile, losing shape entirely but not quite avoiding being hit. The passing vine sent bits of his liquefied body splattering a short distance around him. Pulling those pieces back in quickly he changed tactic and began to move closer.

Josh saw the dirt sticking to the vine and then looked over the opposing pokemon. "Vaporeon, go for his belly," Josh shouted indicating the large open area of soil. His pokemon continued charging at the foe in a liquid state, the movement more like water down a shallow stream than a living creature.

Rhydon instead of following up with another ranged Grass type attack lowered his shoulder and charged to meet the flowing pokemon. The two hit strongly, with the Water type producing a large blast of water as he impacted and was spread over the field by the mass of tightly packed leaves.

Rhydon stood panting with brown muddy water dripping from his frame. Vaporeon sluggishly pulled himself back together some distance away. The two pokemon look at each other with determination despite the obvious tiredness of their bodies.

Vaporeon moved first, taking a half step forward that turned into a liquid stumble as the moving limb melted against the ground. Rhydon responded by moving an arm in front of his soaked chest and growing another thick vine from the end of the other in preparation to attack.

"You're done Vaporeon," Josh said from the sidelines, earning a look from his pokemon. The Water type ignored the order and attempted another Water Gun. The attack came out slower than before and was swatted aside by a swing of the vine. "Vaporeon! You're beat," Josh shouted and held up the pokemon's ball.

On seeing that Vaporeon looked to his foe, then turned from the fight arrogantly and flipped his tail at his enemy. "Hey," Josh chastised, "You aren't going to be always fighting at a type advantage. I need you to be ready for things to get tough like this. The rest of the team shouldn't carry a match just because you don't want to deal with a hard fight." The pokemon looked at his trainer with some shock at this and then turned to the side contemplatively. With a sigh Josh returned his Water type.

"Has he been just fighting pokemon with a type disadvantage?" Alexa asked as she moved to look over her own pokemon. Rhydon's body had started to dry out some, the roots inside his form leeching out the water to grow with. The currently Grass type pokemon moved at her motions to show his various small injuries.

"Yeah, you were the start of a whole run where we fought teams with strong Ground and Rock types. It ended with that one I mentioned before, I think that guy wanted to be a Ground type Gym leader. Vaporeon took down four pokemon in that one match," Josh said somewhat sadly, "He got knocked out with the rest of my team in the next match. By a Jolteon, and that probably just reminded him of his sisters."

"Sounds like something big to work on," she replied checking the wet dirt to see how well it was holding together. "I'd say you did a bit better than Charizard," she told Rhydon as she wiped a thin layer of mud off her hands on the damp grass, "but if you're going to stay like that you will need some better tactics too." The pokemon nodded thoughtfully.

"How does that work by the way, him changing like that?" her rival asked curiously looking over the pokemon.

"Right now it is a temporary thing for him, and I'm honestly not sure if long term is possible for this," she ran a hand through the leaves of an arm, "If he wants it though I will ask dad what he knows."

Josh laughed at the non-answer. "I know I said not to bury me in your dad's technical talk, but that doesn't mean I don't want to know anything about the actual details."

She smiled at him and shook her head. "Does saying 'it is the result of really good Grass type medicine' actually tell you more than that?"

"Not really, but it gives me something to," he cut off and looked at her, "Wait, medicine? Seriously?" He turned to the pokemon and motioned to a nearby set of twigs broken off from the fight. "You have some medicine that can do that to a pokemon?"

"You have a pokemon that can stop being solid at will," she replied dryly. "Is it really that much weirder?"

Shaking his head he started to walk away. "I guess not. See ya around Alex."

"Good luck in Hoenn Josh," she told him while moving her pokemon back over to the pile of paperwork. 


	5. Capacitance

\- Capacitance -

"Alright guys, I've been looking over the things we have and found some that are a bit different from the ones we've done so far," Alexa told her team while looking at the three small boxes set on the desk. The two transformed pokemon sat patiently at the back of the group while Charizard had rejoined the cluster of pokemon that were not currently an unusual type. "These items cause changes that are actively ended instead of running out after some time." Heracross interrupted with a shocked click and light burst of heat. Looking at him directly she continued, "That is the good news, the bad news is that they are effectively permanent if you don't stop the effect." All of the pokemon present sent worried looks at the boxes now.

Turning to one of them Alexa took a piece of paper off the table in front of it. "This is the one I think is the least dangerous. It is a kind of moss called 'Capacitance', and its found near the nesting places of Electric type Legendaries. This bit was found near an abandoned power plant that a Zapdos was seen nesting inside." She opened the box and took out a jar of bright orange plant matter, a label with a few warning symbols and text covered one side of it. "When a pokemon eats some of it they grow pouches that let them store electricity, and as a result change to have the Electric type. These pouches start off nearly empty, and it takes weeks for the pokemon to start generating a charge at the rate of a normal Electric pokemon." Setting the jar down on the table she turned around to look each of her team in the eyes. "The only way to turn back is to completely empty the pouches, and while that is fairly easy to do right after the change fully emptying out like that is somewhat painful for an Electric type. With a full Electric type's generation speed doing so requires assistance and is even worse as you are basically fighting your own body."

The team looked at her after that declaration. Heracross looked concerned despite the earlier brief annoyance. Rhydon's shocked look morphed into leafy consideration. Charizard held her gaze and nodded to show he understood. Kingler rubbed at her shell with her large claw considering. However, Bellossom waited only a moment after the explanation finished to walk forward and hold out her hand.

Alexa was shocked by the sudden move. "Are you sure Bellossom? I've checked the notes and it makes it clear that turning back is going to hurt no matter what." The Grass type huffed at the statement then turned to point at Heracross, then Rhydon, and finally towards Charizard. "Alright I get it. If they can handle what has happened to them you don't mind that problem at all do you," she said getting a strong nod of confirmation from Bellossom.

"You would have tried something earlier if you could have, right?" she asked the pokemon while setting up the recorder, "You know we always could have the rest of you guys try the geode." The comment got a shocked growl from Charizard, who moved to the rock and cradled it with mock horror at the idea. The pure Grass type laughed a bit at the joke and shook her head at the idea. Once the device was ready Alexa repeated the explanation for the recording and opened the jar to get out a small piece of the plant.

Bellossom took the orange strands quickly and began to chew them, her scrunched face showing that it didn't have a pleasant taste. Her flowers proceeded to grow slightly, the center expanding outward slightly pushing the petals wider. The color of the flowers shifted into a dark orange and jagged black lines formed along them. Soon after the large yellow leaves of her skirt also gained these dark stripes. Finally her skin tone shifted to match those leaves instead of her green ones, and the change ended with a small spark flashing between her flowers. Overall it was only barely more of a physical change than that experienced by Heracross.

"So, how do you feel?" Alexa asked turning the recorder off and coming closer to the pokemon. Another tiny arc leapt between the flowers at her approach, and with that Bellossom sighed sounding exhausted. She held a hand up to stop her trainer and crossed the floor to the nearby patch of sunlight, only to look confused when she got underneath it. Yawning she looked at the window with a touch of anger before sending a confused glance to Alexa.

She was joined in this by the rest of the team, who were also confused by the unusual reaction compared to the other results. Alexa considered the situation for a moment before returning to the box. "I guess I didn't understand what it actually meant for you to start nearly out of electricity," the trainer commented while getting a small device connecting several cables out. Motioning to Bellossom to follow she moved to an outlet on a nearby wall and plugged the device in, sorting out the remaining two cables and holding them out to the newly transformed pokemon. "This will let you charge up while you aren't making any current of your own. Eventually you won't need it if you decide to stay like this."

The pokemon looked somewhat unsure as she took the two connectors and held the ends. Alexa switched the small machine on and watched the small display while keeping an eye on Bellossom. The two cables gave off a series of small sparks which made the new Electric type start to flinch, only to have her face morph into wonder. The plant pokemon quickly brought the cables closer to her flowers and let out a happy sigh as the sparks moved to focus on the altered petals.

The others moved closer as they spent a few minutes just letting the machine work. Alexa continued to check the display while getting out a notebook and writing down various details about the process. After a while she clicked the device off, "That should be enough for now." Bellossom looked up at her surprised and then frowned at the trainer. "I want to make sure you can change back," Alexa said to the pokemon, and then cut off the start of an upset noise with, "We'll try that tomorrow, and this should be enough for some testing now."

The new Electric type gave off a series of sparks at this, surprising her and shocking Charizard. He gave an upset snort at the action that was joined by a clicking comment from Heracross. Rhydon shuffled closer as the two Fire types moved off causing the unintentional elemental attack to harmlessly ground itself in his dirt-filled body. Bellossom nodded to the pokemon, then looked to her trainer and nodded with sigh.

The arcs of electricity petered out as they played across the leaves of the altered Rhydon. Bellossom was panting slightly, but still had the altered coloration and larger flowers. "I'm sorry-" Alexa's words were cut off by another burst of energy from a determined Grass type. The morning's attempt at reversing the transformation was well underway, but getting the last of the power out was proving harder than the description implied.

This latest blast of lightning was by far the weakest, equaling the random bursts that had only barely calmed down since the transformation the day before. However, it still was not quite enough as it cut out in time with a mildly pained grunt from Bellossom. Alexa now simply stood with notebook in hand looking sadly at her pokemon. The rest of the team was waiting in their pokeballs for these morning preparations to be done before another day of experimentation and training.

The small Grass/Electric type took a deep breath, and began a final burst at the immune Ground/Grass type. This time as the energy passed between the two the altered coloration drained out of her body. The lines disappearing from her dress of leaves, followed by her overall color shifting back to green, and finally ending with her flowers darkening back to red and shirking to their original size.

The pokemon staggered at the change, but then gave a confused grunt. "Is something wrong?" Alexa asked starting to put the pad away. The Grass type turned to her trainer and gave a confused and painless shrug, the discomfort from overusing electricity apparently gone. Rhydon moved closer to examine his teammate and after a moment of poking at her leaves and petals with the same confusion. "I guess, huh. I guess you can't feel pain in a body part you don't have?" the trainer more asked than said.

Bellossom took this moment to cross the lab towards the desk with the various items to test. Alexa gave a loud sigh at the sight. "You want to just go right back already?" she asked the pokemon as it grabbed the charger with one arm and the jar of Capacitance moss with another. The only reply was to have said jar handed to her. "Alright, but if you want to try anything else you will just need to do this again. I will probably be worse the longer you go."

Soon after a fully charged Grass/Electric type pokemon was outside working on getting her new abilities to stop going off randomly. Some of the discomfort from the earlier drain had returned when the transformation was re-applied, but Bellossom had either quickly recovered or was more excited than uncomfortable. Alexa watched with some amusement as her Ground type very visibly returned the favor of helping with a change by all but hovering over the smaller pokemon. Further out by the pond her two Water and two Fire types, totaling three pokemon, were acting together to try and get Charizard to produce water at a lower temperature.

Thoughtfully watching her Grass type work so hard at using the new secondary type Alexa considered the overall situation. "Bellossom," Alexa began after another wild outburst of electricity, "do you regret using the Sun Stone?" The question was asked with some melancholy. The pokemon in question turned to her trainer with a mild look of confusion. "Dad gave it to me because you would stop being a Poison type after using it. I'm just wondering if you regretted becoming a single type pokemon."

The new Electric type responded by crossing her arms and sending another spark between her flowers. "Alright, with this stuff you can be a different type than Poison," the trainer conceded, "but what about if we didn't have it?" Bellossom seemed to consider this idea.

While she thought about her trainer's question the others continued to practice by the pond. Heracross made some form of harsh comment about the Fire/Water lizard's latest attempt at a cooler spray of water, prompting Charizard to send out a mist over the Bug/Fire type. The beatle, now vulnerable to such things, moved to cover his head, only for the heat of the emerging water to make it steam away before getting close to him. Kingler's claw dropped open in awe at the sight, and Alexa had to admit that it showed he was getting better with his new Water type.

Having had some time to consider the question Bellossom replied by growing a series of flowers to create an answer her trainer would understand. Two flowers resembling those of a larch tree were first, one taller than the other, then a red flower with a purple stem, third was a small yellow flower that the pokemon picked a leaf off of. She then had the taller flower mimic giving the yellow leaf to the smaller one, and then the smaller to the red. She then replaced the first red flower with a green stemmed version. Next she picked some strands of grass and then carefully sent current down them. The strands were then passed the same way along the line, ending with a yellow stemmed red flower. This done she looked up at her trainer.

Alexa spent a moment considering the display. "We had the Sun Stone for the same reason we have the Capacitance," she finally replied with some surprise, "You wouldn't have had either option otherwise." The plant pokemon nodded happily at the statement. 


	6. Frozen Flame

\- Frozen Flame -

"The next of the items that are potentially permanent are Frozen Flame crystals," Alexa started opening another of the boxes. She retrieved a white ice crystal with an unmoving purple flame taking up much of the inside. "These are pieces of the Flameheart Glacier, a place far away where Ice and Dragon type pokemon fought long ago." Most of her team was in different type configuration than they naturally had now. Kingler was the only one who had not been changed yet, and at the mention of the Dragon type the crab pokemon scuttled closer.

"Now unlike the stuff we've done so far this one is directly part of the change. By that I mean that it will embed itself into your body while you are transformed." Alexa looked at her pokemon seriously, focusing on the pure Water type at the front. "To turn back we will need to remove it, and that is going to be very painful. So painful that dad has told me that if we use these then the first thing we do after you finish changing is try to get them back out. He wants to be sure that you don't get stuck because it is too painful to remove, and wants to be told as soon as possible if that happens." The various members of the team now looked nervously at the crystal, including Kingler moving back slightly.

Their trainer sighed before continuing, "Another issue is that if a pokemon under the effects of these evolves then the changes carry over and are permanent. Rhydon, dad told me yesterday that he found out you have a possible evolution. That means you aren't trying either of these." Rhydon took this news with some surprise, rustling the leaves of his chin in thought.

"Now for these items we can tell which of those two types it makes you. See how this is mostly flame inside?" She turned the crystal around in her hand to show them what it looked like more clearly. "That means it is going to make whoever touches it into a Dragon type. From what the reports say they both mostly change you by making you grow spikes, scaly ones in this case but they'd be made of ice for the other one. The crystal is supposed to end up inside one of those spikes." Kingler considered the Frozen Flame for a moment before scuttling forward to stand in front of Alexa. She then tapped her claw against the floor to indicate she was willing.

"Bellossom, how bad was turning back for you?" Alexa asked looking at her pure water type. The Grass/Electric type moved closer and then spoke to the group for a moment. "This is going to be worse, are you sure that you can handle trying this?" The claw clacked against the floor again. "And can you live with being stuck as a Dragon type if we can't get it out safely?" Three louder clacks this time, and Kingler gave a strong click of acceptance.

Alexa nodded at that and once again setup the recording to describe the change. Holding out the crystal she waited for Kingler to take it herself. The crab moved quickly to take the item, only when the ice came into contact it seemed to vanish. Kingler's body immediately shifted from her natural red color to a dark purple while the off white portion darkened to a rock-like grey. Then the exterior of her shell began to grow a large number of spines of that same purple. These formed pointing towards her back, starting by her natural spines being coated in larger more wicked variants. Her limbs all notably increased in size while strength seemed to enter her joints, notably her massive claw immediately moving more easily. The final set of spines appeared on her claw, getting two large curved ones pointed towards its front. The Frozen Flame now was visible again in center-most of the large spines on her back.

Kingler moved each of her limbs after the change was completed. There were four loud clacks on the floor as the now stronger legs ended up creating small impressions in the tile floor of the lab. The clack of each claw opening and closing was notably louder as well, and the Water type was able to maneuver the larger one widely with little effort. A puff of purple flames expanded out from Kingler's mouth at this as she tried to laugh at the change. This was followed soon after by a more deliberate one from her large claw.

Alexa smiled at her pokemon, although it turned sad as she spoke up. "We have to try and change you back now." The pokemon almost looked surprised now, then sadly moved closer. Alexa looked at the sharp spines that now covered the Water type. Nervously she picked over the area trying out where she could safely put her hands. Carefully she pressed against the edge of the Frozen Flame trying to see how to lever it out.

As she tried to pry her fingers in at one edge Kingler shot backward with a harsh click of pain. While all the spines had missed her Alexa still jerked her hand back at the rapid motion. There were shocked sounds from the others at this near miss, and after moving the new Dragon type took on a miserable stance. "It's okay, I'm fine," Alexa said softly to the pokemon. "Can you hold still while we try again?" The pokemon looked at her trainer and thought for a moment, before shaking her body in the negative.

With a sigh Alexa looked at her other pokemon before turning back to Kingler. "Should we try having someone else hold you still while I get it out?" she asked motioning to the Grass types. After a moment of thought the Water type nodded. Alexa motioned to Rhydon to come closer, and then instructed him to produce the heaviest vines he could around Kingler. After testing them against some basic struggling Alexa moved to carefully pry at the same edge as before.

After a couple of minutes of trying the only result from her attempts had been the need to replace the vines from damaged caused by Kingler's new spikes. "I'm sorry Kingler," she told the panting Water type, "I can't get a grip on it." The various pokemon looked over the situation. After a moment Charizard came forward and moved his trainer aside. A short conversation of clicks and growls followed.

Alexa could only watch worried as the three pokemon set about doing the task without her. Rhydon moved the vines slightly to get a better grip, although it would not last as long due to being on several spikes. Kingler steadied herself and closed her eyes. Charizard carefully moved close and wedged his claws in the thin crack around the crystal. As he heaved the chunk of ice out there was a pained noise from the crab that seemed to rise, before being cut off in something like confusion.

Kingler's original form proceeded to almost fall out of the vines, while large fragments of purple armor clattered to the floor around her. Some of these sharp pieces were left stuck in Rhydon's vines, but most simply sat on the ground despite the pokemon having been changed back. The Frozen Flame was allowed to clatter to the floor nearby, having only barely been in the Fire type's claws before being released. Still worried their trainer moved forward to collect the item and inspect the three of them.

Charizard and Rhydon were unharmed, although the latter was obviously tired from having to hold Kinger. The crab was strangely ok. She seemed a bit tired and to be staring at the pieces of purple shell with a confused expression, but there was little hint that she had been in enough pain to cry out moments before. "Kingler? Are you alright?" A confused nod was the reply from the once again purely Water type.

At that moment the remaining two members of the team approached and began to question the restored pokemon. Bellossom was fairly kind and seemed to be comparing it to her own experience with sudden loss of type if the motions to her flowers and faked tired expression were any clue. Heracross was interested in the occurrence, but pushed in close to see the fragments of the other form left behind. This earned the Bug/Fire type a growl of warning from Rhydon, who set to work gathering the pieces for later investigation.

After the discussion with the Grass/Electric type Kingler moved back towards her trainer, and after indicating the crystal clacked her claw against the floor again. "Kingler," Alexa said somewhat exasperated, "If you use this again are you going to be willing to go through the trouble of getting it back out again? To deal with that pain?" The crab looked at her trainer with a serious expression, then glanced back at Bellossom and tapped the claw again.

The day after a change was now becoming the standard day to get a basic handle on the new form. In Kingler's case this was largely just learning to restrict her new power. There were short ruts where she tried to stop from moving too fast on the land that Rhydon was filling in and replacing the torn turf. Bellossom was going between short chared patches of grass where the new Dragon had learned to use the type's dangerous flames. Heracross had largely avoided any work directly, although he was sulking a bit at the sight of the crab's excitement. The final member of the team had decided to repeat the first day's attempts to race the pond. Kingler had eagerly agreed to the rematch.

A loud crack echoed through the field as her armored form hit the rock on the edge of the pond hard enough to spit it into three pieces and send the topmost of these tumbling a short distance away. Kingler shook herself out of the resulting rubble, and then turned to her trainer with an apologetic look. Behind her back in the pond Charizard stopped racing forward and simply smiled amused at the sight.

With a sigh Alexa walked along the edge of the pond to the broken stone. As she walked she looked back at the other rock, and the thin groves and shallow crater still on its surface. "I think when Rhydon gets his Rock type back we are making extras of these," she commented as she walked up to her new Dragon type pokemon. This prompted a rumbling laugh from Charizard as he swam the rest of the way to the shore.

"So, we can tell you are faster now, stronger too, and definitely tougher. Is that everything you hoped for?" The crab happily knocked her claw on one of the pieces, proceeding to crack it in half. This time the sigh was from Rhydon as he watched the newly broken piece fall to the ground. His leafy head shook back and forth at the future work. "Right, that's enough practice for the day. Rhydon should be turning back anytime now, so I thought we could get a picture of everyone while you are all changed."

The team was excited about this idea. Heracross had the idea to place Charizard between himself and Kingler to have their shared types next to each other, and then spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out which side of them the two Grass types would fit best at. Having them in front would not work as the two shortest pokemon were in different type groupings. In the end Rhydon and Kingler ended up next to each other after the Bug type decided that Ground and Dragon types were closer than any other combination.

Alexa had to laugh at the end result while holding up the camera. On the left end was the crack-covered form of Heracross, who had decided to hold out a ball of fire in a claw. Next to him Charizard stood with his fins spread wide and his mist-to-steam trick spraying into the air. After that was the newly spined form of Kingler, the new Dragon type held her spiked claw up high in the air showing off her new strength and had a puff of purple flame flowing out of the end. Next was the topiary form of Rhydon standing with one of his thick vines grown out of his wrist. Finally Bellossom's yellow form stood at the end with electricity cracking between her flowers, although some was arcing off to ground in Rhydon's leaves. Their trainer quickly clicked the shutter button and took the picture to capture the altered attacks. They then took a couple of more shots of the team in various groupings, including one with the timer on the camera that just barely included Alexa.

"Alright guys, we've had some good downtime helping dad out but we should at least think about what to do next," Alexa told the group of pokemon as they all sat by the edge of the pond. "First off is our options for Leagues. Hoenn is out for this run, they start too soon and I don't want to rush straight to the Gyms." This got a number of nods, in particular Charizard who even huffed annoyed at the idea.

"The obvious option is to do the Kanto League again. Maybe go for more of the main line of Gyms this time," she chuckled a bit before continuing, "I'd love to see how Cerulean Gym reacts to you Charizard." This got a round of laughter from the team, and Charizard waggled his fins at the thought. "Problem there is we would end up re-doing several of them then, and even the smaller Gyms we went to before are basically on the same path we took the first time."

Heracross gave a questioning click while pointing to himself. "Yeah, the other easy option is Johto. Just across from Mount Silver and the place to find other heracross," she agreed with a smile. "We can be there without much hassle and dad would probably agree to the month earlier start time. New places to see, new Gyms to fight, and just enough familiar things to not make us too homesick." The whole group looked at the sky considering the option.

After a moment Alexa continued. "Sinnoh is another option. It's a farther trip, but that also means the stuff we see is more new places and pokemon. Not too far to worry about getting there in time for their League to start." There wasn't very strong opinions on this one. "Anywhere farther than that is a bit too much work to get ready for. Especially with how most of you seem to be changing your type to something non-standard," she said to her Water types and Electric type.

Kingler nodded happily at the statement, swinging her claw with joy. Bellossom joined in with a couple of sparks, and Charizard waggled his fins. Rhydon nodded but did not join in the demonstrations, instead he looked at the pond considering. Heracross grumbled slightly and nodded, only agreeing with the need to prepare. 


	7. Return to Rock

\- Return to Rock -

In the middle of the field Kingler skid to a halt and opened her large claw to send a blast of purple flames at Rhydon. The Ground type aborted his own Vine Whip attack to move out of the way of the blast, avoiding all but a few licks of the attack. Unlike a Fire type attack these did little to burn the leaves near the ones it hit, instead the Dragon Breath simply charred the ones licked by the flames. The new Dragon type was enjoying the new attack and the improved defenses as they had made her ability to deal with various types the team had available much easier.

The two pokemon stopped immediately after the flames dissipated. Kingler because her teammate had frozen in place, Rhydon because of a strange sensation. "Rhydon? Is something wrong?" Alexa asked concerned. She moved up to the transformed Ground type while the rest of the team gathered a short distance away.

Rhydon moved slowly looking curious at his own body. Soon the sound of shifting gravel rang out as his leaves collapsed inward turning grey. His breathing, which had slowly stopped as he got used to being a plant, resumed as his chest began to solidify into scales. His plate-like covering reformed from his leaves over his returning skin, the shell of material merging with the branches making up his face and tail then overtaking them as they once more became flesh and blood. His claws and teeth grew stronger and rocky. Moments later the transformation completed and the once again Rock type tried stretching again, this time with some difficulty as the now solid limbs and plates got in the way of the motions. Moving slower than he had while transformed he looked at Alexa curious.

"Looks like that was the end of the Crystal Syrup's effect. That was two days over a week now," she commented going over the once again reptilian form of her pokemon. "I wonder if part of why it lasted longer was how much you were enjoying it." She picked at the scorched but whole location where the recent Dragon Breath had burned away a few leaves. The entire team moved closer and began to speak with the pokemon about his return to his normal typing.

Alexa noted Heracross did so at the edge of the group, and sighing motioned to him to follow her. The still transformed Bug type did so reluctantly. Rhydon and Charizard both seemed to notice their departure, but the latter began to growl loud and playful to distract the group while the former played along with the ploy solemnly.

Once they were a short distance away Alexa knelled down to be at eye level with her pokemon. "Heracross, I need to apologize to you," she started, getting a surprised but curious look. "When we started this whole thing I began the right way, I found something that would wear off quickly and that had minimum impact as a result. However, when I read about how the Clearwater Geode was from Sootopolis, and was probably made by the appearance of Kyogre, I decided to look for something that related to Groudon to do next." The Bug type seemed to realize what the subject of the conversation was, and while he didn't interrupt his expression turned thoughtful at the explanation.

"Charizard had just about stolen the geode that first night, and there were three different types that could result," she continued staring into his eyes. "I read that it would take a month to wear off, and I did not really think about just how long that would be. I chose to go with a longer transformation because it was related to a Legendary connected to the first thing we did, and as a consequence you have quite a bit of time still stuck like this." Taking a deep breath Alexa finished, "Can you forgive me for that mistake?"

Heracross did not immediately answer. He looked his trainer in the eye for a moment, then turned to the side and generated a fireball in his claw. Alexa remained still despite the proximity to the hot ball of flame. The temporary Fire type turned his arm a bit, spinning the ball slightly, before extinguishing it with a small pop. Looking back at his trainer he slowly nodded.

The two of them then moved back to rejoin the rest of the team in going over the restored Ground/Rock type. Rhydon nodded at the two of them, but held up a claw as Alexa moved to get closer. A look of concentration appeared on the large pokemon's face, before a strand of dirt streaked out of the ground in a whip-like fashion. Despite the impressed looks he received at this display the Ground type looked mildly dissapointed at the result.

Rhydon then spoke a rumbling grumble to the team and moved to stand next to the pond. With a stomp of his foot he caused a large rock to rise out of the muddy shoreline, then picked up the stone and carried it to the broken pieces from just days ago. Shoving aside the pieces he set the rock where the old one had lay, and then turned an unimpressed look at Kingler. Moving back to the location he had started he repeated the stomp, looked right at Alexa, and proceeded to repeat the process of moving and making rocks until there was a pile of eight good sized stones sitting not too far from the pond. 


	8. Wisp's Breath

\- Wisp's Breath -

After a day spent getting the Rock type used to his original form again Alexa decided it was time to finish the set of items they had started. The team was waiting in the lab while she prepared for the final of the three boxes of potentially permanent transformations. Charizard and Rhydon were the only ones not currently transformed, although Bellossom was giving a thoughtful look to the box on the table. Kingler and Heracross were both disinterested and simply standing near the back waiting for the event to be over.

Alexa entered the lab carrying a basket of Oran berries. The various pokemon looked at this addition to the setup rather confused as the juicy blue fruit were rarely eaten by the team. Their healing properties, while minimal, were reserved for minor injuries taken while traveling. Seeing so many of them easily made the pokemon nervous, especially with how painful undoing the contents of the other two boxes had been.

"Right, this last one is the easiest to reverse," Alexa began setting the basket down. "Just about any healing item will reverse the changes as long as you haven't been changing over and over, or spent most of a year transformed. Even just eating an Oran berry would be enough to turn you back," she continued holding up one to demonstrate. This brought looks of confusion, and Heracross had a look of outright fear at the thought of what could make her skip such a thing. "As you can probably guess I have a good reason for not doing this one sooner given that. This changes you into a Ghost type."

The pokemon didn't quite shudder at the thought, but they did all look fearfully at the box now. Ghost pokemon weren't all spirits of the dead, although some were. Newborn Ghost types were still new living beings in their own way. Most of the eldritch pokemon were simply creatures that had abilities allowing them to move and act like true spirits. Some were even creatures that were firmly alive that had started with those abilities or had simply evolved to use those powers. However, even aware of this the team still worried about the thought of being closer to death in this manner.

"I've read over the notes on these thoroughly. It is actually similar to a pokemon attack dad was talking about a couple of days ago that some pokemon from the Kalos region can use to make their target into a Ghost type. The biggest difference that this stuff changes a pokemon's secondary type instead of temporarily giving a third type." This statement brought some confused yet interested sounds from the team. Heracross made three clicks and motioned to himself apparently asking about the number of types. "Um, dad didn't say much about how having three types worked, but most of the stuff we are working with can't do that. Actually the only thing we've tried so far that can is the Capacitance, and even then it sometimes changes a pokemon's secondary type." There were nods at this explanation.

"Anyway, the point is that this stuff is safe enough for us to try, but the type involved is different enough that I am wary about it," she finished looking at her team. The various pokemon nodded thoughtfully at the explanation. She opened the box and took out a small sealed vial of a purple gas and a small rack of bottles of a clear liquid. "This," she said indicating the vial, "is Wisp's Breath, a gas found in areas commonly inhabited by Ghost types. It is nearly the same material that Ghastly and Haunter are made of, and as a result is slightly poisonous." Setting it down she took one of the bottles out and continued, "This is a special mineral water that they bubbled the gas thorough like carbonating soda. It is the stuff you would drink to change into a Ghost type."

Unlike the earlier transformations this time none of the team was immediately interested in the change. After some discussion Bellossom moved forward and indicated she was interested. "Alright, but you will need to turn back first. Do you want to do that now and use this after resting a bit, or do it later today and try this tomorrow?" Alexa asked the currently Electric typed pokemon. The plant took a moment to think, and then raised up two of her skirt leaves to indicate the second option.

"Alright then, does anyone else want to try this today, or should we move on to training for now?" Charizard took a step forward now, nodding at the Grass type and then looking at Alexa with a hint of mischief. Warily the trainer started the recording equipment and gave a more brief explanation for the machine. Handing him the bottle she prepared for the change.

Charizard easily opened and drank the altered mineral water with a grimace at the taste. This face soon gave a worrying aspect as his skin took on a paler somewhat sickly orange tone. His tailflame then shifted from its normal orange flames to a blue and white color that seemed to chill the room rather than warm it. As the trainer and her various pokemon shuddered at the feeling of the changed flame the alterations moved to the Fire type's wings. The limbs seemed to simply fall apart and break up into misty blue fragments floating in the air unsupported. Finally the pokemon's claws and teeth slightly changed to an off color that seemed as sickly as his scales.

Charizard let out a hollow sounding laugh at the faces of his teammates at the end of the change. Curiously he moved closer to the desk and attempted successfully to move his arm through the material. Walking across the room the Fire type rose into the air as if the floor was higher up. With a flap of his fragmented wings he flipped to hover in the air upside down in front of the group with his tail hanging in front of him. The whole team looked at this worried at first, but as the pokemon's playful nature shown through they moved to simply bemused.

Seeing that his joking had worked caused Charizard to laugh again, but he cut off when he caught sight of his tailflame hanging in front of his face. In an instant his mood soured and a frown covered his face. Suddenly and without warning the tailflame went out entirely, taking the cold sensation with it but sending the group into panic. Alexa froze at the sight, and the rest of the pokemon reacted in a hurry with questions and concern. Heracross began to rush forward leaking heat, only to be stopped by a strong huff from the floating Fire/Ghost.

"Charizard?" Alexa asked quietly stumbling forward. "Charizard, what's wrong?" The fire type met the soft question with an angry huff at the flame, before growling something to Bellossom. The Grass type looked confused for just a moment before understanding dawned on her face. With a touch of worry she collected a seed from one of her flowers, specifically a Leech Seed. While she could not use the draining seeds as an attack she had collected some for the purpose of gaining energy in an emergency. "The fire was like one of those?" Alexa asked still confused, but getting a nod from her Fire type as he moved to be standing next to the desk. "You were draining us?" Charizard gave another angry nod and reached out to grab an Oran berry from the basket.

Before anyone could react to this action the pokemon shoved the fruit into his mouth and sent some of the juice flying as he crushed it with a single bite and swallowed it. Instantly his tailflame restarted in its natural color and heat. From there his color returned in a wave seemingly pushed back by the fire, claws and eventually teeth returning as well. As it reached his wing roots the misty fragments collected back together into solid structures. The reversal of the transformation was just as long as the change itself, but the suddenness of the change being gone left the group shocked. The winged reptile turned to Heracross and gave a deep bow as he gave a rumbling statement.

Alexa looked at her Fire type sadly. "I take it you don't like that type?" she asked nervously. Charizard gave an angry huff and a shake of his head. "Then I think we are good for today. Do you still want to try this tomorrow, Bellossom?" The Grass type looked between her trainer and Charizard thinking. After a moment had passed with the latter glaring at the rack of bottles she nodded to indicate she was.

The group gathered early the next morning. Charizard had clamed down considerably, but his normal upbeat attitude had not returned from his experience with being a Ghost type. Bellossom on the other hand was groggy and irritable as a result of being just a Grass type again. It had been most of a week since her change to the Electric type, and her power generation rate had become notable by that point. The effort of fully expending her electricity had been enough to leave Bellossom unwilling to do anything else the rest of the night.

Now they were all looking on interested as the plant pokemon became the first to try the same item another had already attempted. With the preparations mostly done the day before Alexa had simply opened the box and extracted the bottles. "You can still back out. Although I'm tempted to have you stay something other than Electric type for a while," Alexa warned while handing over one of the full containers.

Bellossom's face contorted into disgust as she drank the altered mineral water. The pokemon shuddered at the taste, her petals becoming sickly looking during the movement. The next change was her green skin and leaves paling to an unhealthy off white. Finally the now white leaves changed to be spotted with holes of various sizes. A visible puff exited the new Ghost type's mouth at the completion of the change, and for a brief instant everyone felt a chill.

"Well, what do you think?" Alexa asked moving to look at the holes in Bellossom's leaves. The pokemon looked thoughtful and attempted to take a step higher up than the floor. Rising to stand around half her height above the ground she looked down nervously. Charizard gave a grumbling speech to the Grass type at this. The rest of the team actually looked at the Fire type at this, indicating that it was likely advice on the change.

Bellossom proceeded to nervously walk farther up to the ceiling and put her head through it, then drop back down towards the floor. Unfortunately traveling too far and going through, only stopping when her arms seemed to grab onto the surface. With an exasperated huff the Grass type shook her head negatively. Charizard looked embarrassed at the sight and gave a growl of apology to the pokemon.

"This isn't going well for us is it?" the trainer asked helping the pokemon get back to standing on level ground. Bellossom shook her head in agreement and looked towards the basket of Oran berries considering. "You can turn back if you want," Alexa assured the pokemon. The current Ghost type took a moment to consider before shaking her head and motioning outside. "Alright, let's try some more then."

The team moved outside easily, and with another suggestion Bellossom tried going out through the wall rather than the door. She shuddered a bit after getting to the other side, giving a huff at the sensation. She more floated above the ground than walked to the center of the field.

After everyone arrived she attempted to send an attack towards one of the replaced pond rocks. The result was a rippling ball of dark energies that shattered midway along giving off an unnaturally cold feeling. After a moment to get her bearings she tried again, this time the sphere forming with a smoother surface. The energy shot off and hit the rock with a pop, but did no noticeable damage to the solid surface.

The training for the day ended up being mostly attempts at moving while being able to ignore gravity and solid objects as her teammates sent a variety of attacks at the Grass type. Charizard, despite his short time transformed, gave much advice on this aspect as they attempted it. The Flying type using his wings more in just the day's training than he had for the previous week. Bellossom did not enjoy the experience much, rarely going through objects and getting more uneasy despite the greater proficiency she was gaining.

"Bellossom, you don't need to keep going if you don't want to," Alexa finally said after seeing another frown on the plant pokemon from dodging through the rock pile. The Grass type paused in her motions to consider while Rhydon grumbled at the now cracked rock he had hit with his attack. With a sigh she nodded, and the group once again made their way back to the lab.

Professor Larch was waiting there when the team returned. "Alexa, how are things going?" he asked looking at the currently Ghost type Bellossom. The pokemon gave a nod of acknowledgement before moving on to the basket of berries.

"Hey dad, I think we've decided that the Ghost type isn't going to work out," Alexa greeted her father while the plant pokemon ate an Oran berry. They both watched as the color returned to the Grass type and the small holes in her leaves sealed.

"It is always fascinating seeing things like that," the Professor said with a laugh. "It's why I'm in this field you know." Alexa simply nodded at hearing the statement once again. "Anyway, I've just heard from the PokeMart that the latest shipment of supplies for the lab is ready. Would you mind taking the cart and going to get it? It would be a day or so break from being stuck in town."

"Alright dad, sounds great," Alexa replied watching Bellossom walk back to the rest of the team while giving a long look at the box for the Capacitance moss. "I think we could use a change of pace, and some time on the road again sounds good." 


	9. Travels

\- Travels -

"There should be five or six boxes, so the cover should still fit if it rains." Her father told her the next morning as they were getting ready. They had a good sized cart made for either people or pokemon to pull by a pair of handles. The trip from their small town to the next over wasn't done often enough to justify a motor vehicle, but was far enough to require a notable amount of preparation.

"I'm thinking we'll get to the usual camping spot by nightfall, then we can reach the PokeMart midday tomorrow, and we will get back the day after," Alexa suggested as she loaded a bag of supplies into the boxy cart. The supply bag was small enough to carry and was patched in places where it had been used for her League journey. "Is anything going to be stored that we are getting?"

"Two of the packages are going to be full of storage balls. The rest is stuff that is a bit too touchy to convert." Storing items as energy was fairly common technology, but some things did not take the process well. "Nothing perishable this time, so there isn't going to be any rush to get back."

"It's not that far, dad," Alexa said with a laugh. "I've been going on these trips since I was a kid." She lifted the two handles and moved the cart forward to the start of the path with a bit of straining.

"I'm just saying you can take your time. You've helped out a lot you know," the professor replied with a laugh. "Charizard alone has provided quite a bit of information on the interactions caused by uncommon type combinations that are possible with these."

Alexa tapped the Fire type's pokeball releasing him. "You hear that Charizard? Dad is glad you've spent weeks just swimming around," she joked as the pokemon smiled playfully at the two of them. "You're up first by the way," she continued motioning to the cart. With an amused huff the large reptile walked forward and grabbed the two plastic coated handles and tested moving it back and forth.

"Have a good time," her father said as they started to move down the path out of town.

Soon after Charizard gave a short huff shaking his head back to the cart. "The geode?" Alexa asked with dull amusement, getting a wide smile and a nod. She retrieved the rock from the travel bag along with a bottle of water. Soon the trainer and her Fire/Water type were moving steadily along the forested dirt road.

After a good half hour there was a sound from the edge of the road, followed by the emergence of a large Raticate. The Normal type pokemon stood up on its hind limbs and seemed to start making a challenge of sorts, only to stop in confusion at the sight of Charizard. A chittering question was instead the first sound from the rat pokemon, leading to a short conversation between the two that gave the Fire type a moment to rest from pulling the cart. In the end no battle occurred, instead a very confused and worried looking Normal type returned to the forest slowly giving a wide space between itself and Alexa.

"Well, that was odd," Alexa commented as her pokemon chuckled at the retreat. "I think a bit more odd for them than for us though." The Water lizard nodded and started moving again.

There were no more wild pokemon during the rest of the first stage of the journey, and the short road never saw many trainers. Professor Larch had few chances to give out starter pokemon to League challengers, and the small town he lived in was at the end of the routes leading into the wilderness.

The second pokemon to take a turn at pulling the cart was Rhydon, who normally took the longest turn as his body had a notable endurance advantage over the rest of the team. The large Ground/Rock type gave a good natured rumble as he took the cart from the once again Flying type reptile. Charizard gratefully gave up the spot, returning to his pokeball with a yawn.

After traveling another couple of hours another pokemon appeared. This time it was a large Pidgeotto that flew directly into the path and proudly presented its wings to stop them. With a sigh Alexa pulled out one of the other pokeballs she had. "You need to keep carrying for a while, Rhydon. Let's see if Bellossom is up for this," she said to her pokemon as she brought out the pure Grass type. The trainer had decided to not let her pokemon change back to the electric type so quickly.

Rather than get excited at the prospect of a type advantage this made the Flying type wary. It gave a steady nod to its opponent and kept an eye on the group. Bellossom responded to being called out by taking a quick look at her opponent and then moving a bit to think. The swaying motion of her leaves creating a rhythmic rustling sound.

Alexa eyed both pokemon taking in their actions. The Pidgeotto was experienced against trainers, if not previously trained itself. Bellossom, however, was acting oddly compared to her normal battle stance. The leaves were roughly moving over each other in a way that had the trainer wary of what her Grass type had planned.

"Bellossom, Razor Leaf." The Grass type attack rocketed forward fast enough to get past the opponent's quick Gust of wind and strike the bird pokemon. Pidgeotto countered with a stronger burst of air that tore at Bellossom's leaves.

The plant pokemon then concentrated for a moment while targeting the airborne pokemon. With a harsh rippling of leaves moving against each other quickly she produced a burst of sparks that built in her flowers to a medium sized bolt of electricity that struck the bird. Pidgeotto crashed into the ground with a dumbfounded look on its beak.

Seeing that the wild pokemon wasn't moving to continue Alexa turned to her own team member. "You know that finding ways to make electricity is only going to make turning back harder, right?" she asked with a touch of disapproval. Bellossom simply stared back steadily, challenging her trainer. "You really want to stay like that for good? We don't have the equipment to drain an electric type safely, and if you can make enough for an attack now I'm not going to risk you changing again if you aren't." The Grass type simply nodded. "You'd be done with trying things. Dad made it clear that using another one while changed isn't something we can do safely right now." This time there was hesitation before the nod.

A chirp interrupted the conversation, bringing the team's attention to the electricity blackened Pidgeotto. The bird stood proudly and stuck out its beak. With a sigh Alexa turned to the wild pokemon. "Sorry, I'm not looking to catch anyone right now," she told the pokemon. It looked her over for a moment keeping its pose before relaxing into a defeated sigh of its own. "I'm afraid I don't know of anyone looking for new teammates right now either." It nodded at her statement and with a small bow flew off.

Turning back to Bellossom she looked at the pokemon. The plant was still standing tall and looking her in the eye. "Alright, when we get back you can use the Capacitance again, but I will be making sure you are committed, alright?" The Grass type nodded deeply and had a smile as the trainer returned her.

It was some time before the next change of pokemon to carry the cart. This time instead of a short stop to change over they fully stopped by the side of the road for a lunch break. Rhydon sat down and ate his food quickly before laying down to get some sleep. Bellossom like usual ate little solid food instead enjoying time in the sunshine. Charizard was drowsy as he munched on his own meal of dried processed pellets. Kingler's meal was eaten with her smaller claw, as the larger one was now both too big and too spiky to use for that purpose at all. Heracross found a nearby tree for a fresh meal of sap, although he had a couple of false starts causing the holes to close as a result of burning them as he cut through.

The food was mostly dried fare that kept a long time, saved from the prior journey and still useful. It was easily kept in storage balls, and the team did not need a large variety for their specific tastes and needs. Alexa too had a simple meal from the same company intended as an emergency food for lost trainers. The main reason to use up these was that despite the long shelf life the bags had all ended up opened before, and the chances of it going bad for other reasons increased as a result.

"I'm half tempted to try some of yours," Alexa said to the group as a whole, prompting a amused huff from Charizard. "Yeah, yeah. You tricked me into having some of your bag that one time." After a moments pause she continued, "Actually hand some over, it wasn't that bad." The Fire type now outright laughed as he passed a pair of the dry brown cubes.

There was just quiet eating for a while, the soft snoring of Rhydon echoing across the open area by the road. "Heracross, are you up to be next?" Alexa asked as they finished up. The Bug type started to nod only to halt midway through. With a curious and unhappy face he moved to test his ability to move the vehicle. There was no issue immediately with moving the cart a short distance, but Heracross still looked dissapointedly at the vehicle. "Can you pull it for a while?" Alexa asked concerned by the reaction.

Heracross did not reply immediately, instead taking a moment to go over the cart. After getting a good look, he took the bag of supplies out carefully and handed them to Alexa. Taking up the handles again he tried to move it some more, before sighing and nodding. "You can, but only because it's empty." A stronger nod confirmed the statement. "That's fine, do what you can," Alexa replied trying to sound upbeat about it. The Bug type clicked a bit sadly as they started to pack up, and pulled the cart behind them as they started down the road again.

Heracross lasted a couple more hours, but notably less time than he usually managed. Charizard was willing to take up the cart after him despite his earlier turn. In the end they had a somewhat slower pace than Alexa had expected, and as a result it was a fair ways past nightfall when they reached the small remains of an often used fire pit. The good sized clearing was dotted with a couple of large flat rocks that could be used as benches or tables. The ground was spotted in areas where previous travelers had set up tents, one of which Alexa used for the same purpose as Charizard started a fire somewhat tiredly.

When she let the rest of the team out they moved to discuss the day near the cart. Alexa worked on getting out food for a dinner, reading the packages to see the short list of preparation options available when you could stop to make a fire. Charizard was mostly resting on one of the rocks, occasionally responding to the discussion. Heracross was looking sadly between the cart and his fellow Fire type. Bellossom was chatting again about her battle, now including some small sparks created with static from her leaves. Kingler was talking with Rhydon animatedly, and shooting interested looks at the cart.

After a short prep, including a shortcut of Charizard transforming again to get some boiling water, they were eating a slightly better meal of sorta-soup. The group was fine with the resulting taste, but the decision to mix the various types was determined to be a poor one as the result wasn't quite as good tasting as the dry foods alone even if the texture was notably better. "I think I had a bit too much of Rhydon's mix," Alexa commented somewhat jokingly earning a laugh from the others. Heracross gave a chittering and pointed at the bag of Charizard's mix indicating he had liked it well enough.

As the rest of the group descended into comparing their own bags, complete with some sampling, the crab pokemon moved over to the cart. "Something up Kingler?" Alexa asked seeing the Water/Dragon's interest. The pokemon responded by making an attempt to hold onto the handles with her claws. Alexa, seeing her pokemon's intent, moved over and attempted to help the spiny pokemon get a good grip. Soon after the others joined in, eventually ending up with a harness of vines that let her pull the vehicle safely.

"You want to take a turn tomorrow then?" the trainer asked as they carefully disassembled the setup to be reused. Kingler pounded her claw in agreement. "Alright then, that would help a lot." With that out of the way they prepared to go to sleep. Charizard handled putting out the fire, albeit a bit slowly as he was still tired from the day of travel. Then with their trainer laying down inside her tent the pokemon returned to their pokeballs for the night.

Alexa arrived in town followed closely by a large purple spined crab harnessed to a cart. The unusual color and size of Kingler was getting some looks as they made their way to the local PokeMart. The morning's trip had been uneventful, the only thing of note being minor issues repairing and modifying the harness to fit better. The nearest town to her home did not have a Gym, but there was a trainer school she had gone to years ago and the large storefront that supplied the area.

"Hey there Alexa," one of the workers greeted as she approached the blue roofed building. "We have the Professor's stuff ready in the back."

"We'll be right around," the trainer replied moving further out to get the cart angled properly.

"I didn't know Kinglers could evolve again," she heard someone comment nearby. This was soon responded to with light gossip about the various experiments Alexa's father tried out. The currently transformed pokemon gave a clicking chuckle at the discussion.

At the back of the store the loading area was opened up and ready, with six long boxes stacked by the edge. "Quite a bit this time," another worker commented. "Your dad have a big project going on?" she asked before looking over to Alexa. "Whoa, what happened to your Kingler? She wasn't that tough looking before."

Alexa laughed at the statement and moved to help load the packages. "Part of the project actually. She's trying out being a Dragon." Alexa replied as they loaded the first two into the back of the cart.

"Really? Just trying out one of the strongest types," the worker laughed. "If he can let pokemon do that I'm surprised he isn't as famous as Oak." They moved on to the third and fourth boxes, but as they worked to get them in another floated up slightly as the box next to it was lifted. "Then again I guess it has to do with that thing too," the worker said with some annoyance. "Don't know what you have in it, but it is light as air. It's been floating around in the storeroom for a couple of days now while we were waiting for the rest to show up."

Alexa looked at the box consideringly. "I think, that might have some Stable Cloud inside of it," she said after a moment. When she found the worker was giving her an incredulous look she continued, "That is a special kind of cloud only found in really, really bad storms. The kind Legendary pokemon live in that normal pokemon can't really reach. It can be as solid as rock, so if you could get there safely you could walk around on it."

"Why does your dad need some of a Legendary pokemon's masonry?" the PokeMart employee asked nervously. She was now looking at all of the boxes with concern.

"It is supposed to cause pokemon that touch it for a while, about an hour, to change to be Flying type," Alexa explained, a bit too caught up in giving information to see the worker's reaction. When she looked up from putting her next box in the cart she misunderstood the reason that the other woman had stopped. "Oh, don't worry too much. It is only supposed to last around a day or so."

Moving the floating box into the cart the employee collected herself. "You are going to make pokemon into the Flying type by rubbing bits of a Legendary's house on them?" she said slowly. "Are all of the things that he uses that rare?"

"Um, I guess quite a bit of it is stuff collected from places that Legendary pokemon live," Alexa admitted getting the last box in. "but Legendaries tend to be some of the purest examples of the various types of pokemon, so that makes sense. Right?"

The worker simply shook her head and got the paperwork ready. "Is there anything else you need?" she asked as they moved the cover over the load. Alexa noted that she did need to resupply herself, and returned her pokemon to enter the shop.

Replacement bags of dry food were easily found, although she looked at the ingredients a bit more thoroughly to determine what mixes would work better together. She was a bit surprised to see that the lists on the versions made for humans were sometimes quite close to the cheaper pokemon fare. In the end she got more of the pokemon versions than before, and only a single bag of rations that were intended for herself. Along with these were a few fresh foods for the night's meal on the way back.

Batteries, potions, and other expendable gear were then added to the small pile. Next were some replacement materials for her rough sewing kit and some extra patches for various fabrics. After getting these items together Alexa remembered she wasn't halfway across the region all on her own and put back some of them as she could either get them from home or didn't need them at all for the moment.

At this point she saw a clearance section for travel supplies that had been stocked during the previous League. Most of it was stuff she already had in good condition, but standing out was a selection of a few hammocks that were slightly discounted. She had for a time possessed one herself, but one night a curious Nidorina had found it while she was getting the rest of the camp ready. The poisonous pokemon had been just tall enough to climb in, and after getting tangled inside had torn her way out. Alexa had been incredibly dissapointed by the loss, and had hoped to repair or replace it now that she was home.

With some trepidation she checked the price carefully and considered her own funds. She had made a good amount during the League, and her dad was giving her some pay for her help. If she was careful, and probably started eating only pokemon food for the start of her next journey, she could afford it.

Purchases made and packages set she enlisted the two employees to help her disassemble Kingler's makeshift harness. They were willing to help, and bid her a kind farewell as Rhydon walked beside her starting on their way back home.

The final day of their short trip began with Alexa once again waking up in her tent at the long used camp site. She had left her tent and some other supplies set up the previous day as she had known that she would be back for another night. She had reluctantly decided to not use her new hammock just yet, mostly out of worry that it would be damaged. The trainer was also planning on comparing the new one to the remains of the old in the hopes of repairing the original so that she had two to use.

"Alright, everyone ready to head home?" she asked the assembled team as they ate another meal made from the last of the fresh food she had purchased for the night before. There were a mix of happy sounds indicating that they were. "Right, plan is for Rhydon to go first, then Charizard, and last will be Kingler getting harnessed so we can show it to dad at home."

Kingler clacked her claws happily at the prospect, and Rhydon gave a good natured huff as he got ready to move the now heavier cart. Alexa got Bellossom and Charizard to help tear down the site while Heracross was given the task of putting out the small fire they had used to prepare the food.

Rhydon handed the entire morning's travel well, making it almost as far as the day before despite the heavier load. Alexa had seen some pokemon looking at them while they traveled, but none came forward to challenge her. They seemed to be sending curious looks though.

Charizard's turn began with him immediately wanting to transform, with the Fire type only laughing at his trainer when she wondered aloud what made him so egar. The answer came soon after when the first drops of rain began to fall.

Alexa grumbled at the pokemon as they stopped so that she could get out a rain coat. "You could have warned me if you knew about this," she complained to the temporary Water type as he splashed in the newly forming puddles. The reptile huffed with some amusement before throwing a still wet arm around the newly worn coat. Alexa's mood improved as the obviously distracted pokemon gave an incomprehensible rumbling explanation. "I'm guessing you've been waiting to see what rain felt like?" she asked with some more humor, getting a very excited nod in response.

The rain continued as they traveled, with Charizard using the Clearwater Geode to keep from changing back. Alexa even tried using rainwater caught in her coat with the stone on the Fire type with apparent success. The ecstatic pokemon made good time, and Alexa had to move a bit more quickly than normal to keep up with her pokemon.

When the time came for the group to stop for a lunch the rain had remained steady and did not show any signs of stopping. Without easy access to a place out of the weather Alexa instead retrieved and assembled a canopy tent that she had actually purchased to keep Charizard from being inconvenienced by the rain in this kind of situation. The reptile took great pleasure in helping to set it up in the rain.

Once it was setup she let out the team and began to get out the food. Heracross spent the meal looking out from the tent at the overeager Charizard. Kingler and Bellossom ate slowly outside of it in the rain while discussing a set of vines the latter had created for some purpose. Rhydon lazily sat next to the Bug/Fire type and gave some lamenting grumbles at the sight of the rain outside. The large Ground/Rock type picked at strands of grass while the beetle gave clicking explanations to his questions.

As the rain continued Alexa considered their options. "Bellossom, do you think the harness will work if it gets wet?" she asked seeing that the two pokemon were investigating that topic. The Grass type had tied a loose strand of plant matter around a couple of rain soaked spines on Kingler's back. Then the two pokemon had shifted the end around mimicking moving the cart. They showed Alexa how the vine remained fairly stable for a while, but slid much more than the day before.

"I don't like how much that's moving," the trainer commented, and Kingler gave a wave of agreement. Pulling the vine off Bellossom showed Alexa that the edges of the spines were cutting into the material because of the movement. "It looks like we would need to make repairs fairly often." The Grass type nodded and then carefully moved onto the Water/Dragon's back, she then took the vine and used some energy to repair the cuts.

Thinking on that suggestion Alexa turned to the Fire lizard still playing in the small puddles on the ground. "Charizard, are you still up for going a bit farther, or did you tire yourself out having fun?" Charizard looked at his trainer and gave an amused huff as he nodded. "In that case we'll see how long you can manage, and then Bellossom will work with Kingler to keep the harness together."

The rain continued for around two more hours with Charizard enjoying it so much that he pushed himself to continue longer than normal. As a result there was only a short time when the crab and plant needed to keep the damp harness together. Alexa had them take a short break after the rain halted to try and dry the patched vines. The three of them decided to continue with Bellossom riding the rest of the way just in case, to the apparent amusement of both pokemon.

Alexa's father was waiting for them outside when they got home. A familiar blue and white shape was perched on his shoulder. Porygon wasn't one of her father's main battle pokemon back when he won a League, but the artificial life form's ability to alter its type at will was extremely helpful in his research afterward. The digital pokemon was currently flying type as shown by the more avian shape of its polygons and the replacement of its normal red colored sides with a white color like that of clouds. It had a pair of large wings along its sides instead of the normal blocky legs, and thin spikes extending downward to rest just above her father's coat.

The bird-like construct made a smug series of beeps at the Professor as they caught sight of her arrival. "Yes, Porygon, you were right," he told the pokemon before turning to Alexa "It seems that you're a bit better at planning a trip than I am," her father said with a chuckle. "Your mother keeps complaining about the times I've needed an extra day to make that trip. Were there any problems? I see you found a way to get the rest of your team to have a turn." The data pokemon gave a curious beep looking over the display of her crab pokemon being lashed to the cart and ridden by her Grass type.

Kingler happily clacked her claws as Bellossom made one last check of the vines and carefully got off of her teammate. "Yeah, we found a way to take advantage of Kingler's new strength," Alexa started, and then sighed and continued, "but Heracross is a bit weaker, so he couldn't quite manage."

"Really? I suppose it makes sense for the Fighting type to give a similar physical benefit as the Dragon type," the Professor noted with interest. "I'll have to see about finding something for that type, it is proving surprisingly difficult."

"Really?" Alexa asked as they moved closer to the lab to unload the cart. "I would think that those Aura adepts you were taking with would know of something."

Her father nodded, and then as the approached the door moved to inspect Kingler's harness more closely. "Well it is actually the other way around for that problem. It is easy for even humans to gain a temporary Fighting type with the proper training, not all of those that train with the Fighting type variant of our kind have the potential to become one themselves. Just like how not all who try and train under Psychic type humans do so."

"So they do have plenty of ways of doing it for a short time. Is it something that changes the shape of whoever does it like the Geode or is it just altering the resistances like that Ghost over in Kalos?" Alexa asked helping to get the harness of the crab while also showing the various connections they had made.

"They are both around the same from what I've seen. The difference between a pokemon without the Ghost type and one with it added to their normal types is fairly minimal. Charizard likely only changed as much as you saw because of a loss of his Flying type," he commented thoughtfully. "Perhaps I was looking at them the wrong way around, the Fighting type is not always visibly notable even in pure examples." Taking the removed harness in a bundle he changed topic, "This is a useful piece of equipment. We should take some notes on its construction so we can try to make a better one later."

Alexa smiled at that and started to return her pokemon, only for Bellossom to shake her head and mime lifting things. "Sounds great dad, and it seems we have some help unloading this stuff."

At this offer Porygon gave a resolute beep, then moved to stand next to Kingler for a moment and pulsed with light. The various shapes making up its body began to shift and extend. The beak-like face growing larger and bulky. Then the wing structures reconfigured into large clawed arms, and the thin spikes shifted into a single larger spike. Finally there was an instant shift in color from cloud white to dragon purple. The newly converted pokemon then quickly moved to open the covering over the cart.

Between the five of them it was quite trivial to unload the boxes, especially with one being light as air and easily taken by an extra vine from Bellossom as she carried a lighter one inside. With the supplies taken care of for the moment the pokemon were returned to their balls while the two Larchs locked up the lab and returned home. 


	10. Nightmare Fragment

\- Nightmare Fragment -

"Alright everyone, we have some new things to try," Alexa started looking over her team. She had spent the morning with her father going through most of the supplies to sort out the new items to test. The team was mostly their normal forms for the moment, with the exceptions being Kingler still using her Frozen Flame and how Heracross was still around a week away from turning back to normal. Bellossom was somewhat upset over her trainer delaying her using the Capacitance again until after one last item.

"Now, this is something like the Frozen Flame in that you simply need to be in contact with it to transform," she explained going to open a long thin box. "Unlike those this is not harmful to use at all." She removed a good sized piece of unnaturally black fabric and draped it over her body slightly. Her skin almost seemed to have darkened a bit while wearing it and the points of her fingernails almost looked sharper.

"This is a Nightmare Fragment, a kind of cloth that is said to be created by Darkrai during disasters. Although this one was just found in an abandoned building near the radio tower in Goldenrod, so what actually makes it is probably harder to tell." She took the fabric off and held it out in front of her, the seeming change in her appearance vanishing. "What it does is make whoever wears it into a Dark type. It isn't really clear from what I've read so far if it just adds the type or not, so anyone with two already might get a third." Charizard and Rhydon both looked at the garment with interest, while the rest of the team only gave mild interest. "When I saw that this was so simple I wanted to give everyone a chance to use it," she said looking at her Grass type, "because it is even easier to work with than the Clearwater Geode."

Charizard walked forward and took the cloth with some interest. Before putting it on he looked towards his trainer. "I'm just going to write notes this time, the only effects are supposed to be darker colors and sharper claws," she told him and motioned for him to go ahead. Placing the strangely black cloth between his wings caused a minor darkening of his colors and might have made his claws sharper, but compared to the now normal increase in size when he became aquatic it was a barely noticeable alteration. After a moment there was the inclusion of some black into his tailflame, but overall the changes were still minimal compared to even just the color changes of his earlier transformations.

Everyone looked over the Fire/Flying type for a moment, including the reptile himself, trying to be sure if there had been a change. "We don't have an easy way of testing for the Dark type, do we?" Alexa asked nervously looking at the distinct lack of Psychic type pokemon. Heracross considered for a moment and then walked forward and motioned to himself, they did know that Dark types were weak to Bug moves. "Heracross, both of his other types resist the Bug type," his trainer informed the beetle. The pokemon shook his head and then pointed at Rhydon, then the cloth.

The Ground/Rock type lacked any resistance or vulnerability to the bug type, and quickly nodded at the modified plan. Charizard handed the cloth over, his own change vanishing so quickly that it was hard to tell it had been there. The stone like reptile draped it over his back, resulting in a slight darkening of his body most noticeable on his belly. His many spikes and horn were more noticeable as they became much sharper. The transformed pokemon easily noticed the change this time, carefully maneuvering his sharper claws and touching the points of his spikes. Heracross gave a bit of a sigh at the much more apparent change undercutting his idea.

"Well, that one works well enough," Alexa noted as the Ground type still braced for an attack and nodded to the Bug type. She watched with some interest as Heracross sent a shot of Pin Missile at the other pokemon, who flinched noticeably at the resulting attack. "I think this one is actually rather interesting actually. It could be something to hold onto if we need to deal with Psychics."

Bellossom, watching the whole endeavor with a bit more interest as it progressed, gave a sigh and moved forward. Charizard gave a chuckle as he plucked the cloth off of Rhydon and jokingly presented it to the Grass type with exaggerated motion. The plant pokemon took the item with a huff and wrapped her small body in it.

Unlike the other times someone had tried wearing the item this resulted in no change. "Huh? What's going on?" Alexa asked moving closer. Bellossom shifted the Fragment over her body in various ways, ending with it simply draped over her head, but no alteration occurred. "That's weird, I wonder why it isn't working." The whole team was now looking at the Grass type with interest.

Alexa considered this for a time before a thought occurred to her. "We haven't been having everyone try each of these," she said to the team. "We've just been assuming that if it worked on one pokemon it would work on all of them, and maybe that isn't the case." The team looked over the various notebooks and items set on the desk. With a great sigh Charizard reluctantly grabbed his Geode and gave a short falsely sincere speech to the pokemon present before holding it out. "I guess that is a place to start," Alexa said shaking her head at the pokemon's antics. 


	11. Clearwater Revisited

\- Clearwater Revisited -

Bellossom's leaves expanded outward greatly, changing in appearance from being a skirt to a long dragging dress. Her body changed to a blueish green from its natural color, and her flowers shifted to a light blue tone. Thin vine-like stems then grew outward from the locations between her leaves trailing along the ground. The Grass type inspected the changes to her body while still holding the small glass she had just taken a drink from.

"At least we know this isn't some kind of problem that was stopping you from changing at all," Alexa said with a sigh of relief. "Still, now we can't be sure if anything we try doesn't work because it doesn't work at all, or if it just isn't compatible with the pokemon that tried it."

Rhydon looked at his own glowing glass then at his teammates, two of whom had already drank the altered water. Charizard had not really needed to do so, but the Fire type had insisted on using the Clearwater Geode on himself before having anyone else try. Kingler had not returned to her normal type yet, and even in that case she would already be a pure Water type pokemon so there was little chance the Geode could have an effect on her. Heracross was at the other end of the room looking a little unnerved by how many Water types there currently were in the room with him. Bellossom was trying to move about the room a bit, but the transformation had made her body much larger and more complex causing her to get somewhat tangled in herself.

The Ground/Rock type pokemon gave a cheerful grumble at the antics of his teammates to get everyone's attention, then waited for Alexa to get the small notebook she was using ready before drinking his own glass. The majority of the reptile's body immediately shifted color from grey to a muddy brown. The thick plates of his body then softened into tightly packed reptilian scales, with the exception of his spines which instead changed to appear a slight blue color while remaining solid pieces. The overall change giving the pokemon's skin the appearance of sharp rocks embedded in mud. Finally the claws on his hands and feet grew outward with webbing between them, the digits extending outward in a way that increased their ability to move and as a result the dexterity of the pokemon's hands. The newest Water type tested this by moving his altered hands over the softer scales now covering his body in place of the plates that usually covered it, and much like his earlier changes to the Grass type and back he tested the alterations by stretching to the limits of his mobility.

Alexa watched with the rest of the team while he moved slightly less stiffly than normal, but still more solidly than when he was a boneless plant. The Ground type gave a short huff at the attention, then motioned outside. "Yeah, that's probably the best way to spend the next hour or so," Alexa agreed. The whole group exited the door, although Bellossom had some difficulty getting her new vines to cooperate with that and needed a bit of help managing them.

Once outside the group noted that the sky was still rather cloudy, and after a moment there was a hiss of steam from Heracross as a drop of rain hit his heated shell. The Bug/Fire pokemon looked at the sky like it had personally betrayed him, then motioned for Alexa to return him to his pokeball. The red flash of energy of the pokemon disappearing seemed to trigger the rain to begin in earnest as there was a sudden barrage of water droplets. With some annoyance of her own their trainer retreated back to the lab to collect an umbrella as the collection of Water types experienced the weather condition associated with that type.

Bellossom was vaguely interested as she took some time to try and sort out her encumbering changes, but seemed already used to the feel of the falling water. Kingler had been distracted from the rainstorm while on the road in favor of paying attention to the harness. Now the pokemon was looking somewhat upset at the falling drops as they hit her thick armor without transferring much of the sensation through. Charizard was eagerly trying to get the group to the pond while also looking up to the sky excitedly. Rhydon was looking around in a bit of awe, spreading out his arms to feel raindrops on his new skin and even opening his mouth to try and catch some.

Alexa returned to the group having moved to the edge of the pond, with Charizard in the process of helping Bellossom into the water where her new form was floating along the surface slightly more easily than it had been moving out of the water. Rhydon and Kingler were along another side of the water with the Ground type moving into the muddy edge slowly, his face bearing a wide happy smile as he moved into the previously hazardous area.

Soon the whole group was in the pond while rain feel from the sky. Bellossom was mostly floating uninterested as the other three played in the water. "You aren't having much luck with things that change how you move, are you?" Alexa asked the Grass type as she paid attention to the time from the shore. The plant pokemon gave a huff of irritation and nodded, tendrils rising for a moment to slap the water in frustration. "When we're done here you can use the Capacitance," the trainer told her, earning a slightly surprised look. "I think anything else interesting to try is going to just give you this same problem again. You don't seem to like any really big changes, and the Electric type didn't alter much about you." The pokemon nodded at the reasoning, and then gave a happy chirp at being given permission to become the Electric type permanently.

Rhydon then led the others in a sort of game of tag that lasted most of the next hour. The large reptile seemed quite entertained by the change, but was notably less maneuverable compared to the two longer time Water types. After some time he took a spot in the mud by the edge and simply waited out the transformation in the rain. When Bellossom suddenly began to shrink back to her normal appearance the remaining pokemon in the pond quickly helped her back out, with Charizard returning to his natural type as he emerged from the water into the still steady rain. Rhydon soon followed, and the two pokemon with a weakness to the Water types opted to be returned instead of trying to walk back to the lab in the wet weather. 


	12. Capacitance Revisited

\- Capacitance Revisited -

Alexa watched as a happy Bellossom finished transforming to have the Electric type as a secondary once again. "Alright, let's see how you're doing," the trainer said motioning for the newly dual type pokemon to come closer to the small charging device. The plant pokemon was far more energetic than after her prior changes. Alexa had to laugh at the pokemon's eager motions to grab the charging cables as she monitored the screen to see how the process went.

"Yeah, you are already putting out around half the power of a normal Electric type," she told the Grass type. The rest of the team looked at their altered teammate with interest as she gave off a prideful spark at the statement. "Well, that's that then. No more testing for you," Alexa said turning the device off, earning a brief frown from Bellossom as she walked back to the table.

Picking up the still mostly full jar of moss she looked over the rest of the team. Kingler was back to being a pure Water type, she had decided to see about trying other types and earlier had reluctantly agreed to let Charizard try her Frozen Flame. The Fire type was currently standing next to the crab pokemon holding the ice crystal, his immediate attempt to use it after again helping to remove the item from his teammate had failed. Unfortunately it appeared that he was immune to its effects in much the same way the Nightmare Fragment did not work on Bellossom, much to the psudo-dragon's disappointment. He was the only one to try as Rhydon was still barred from using the crystal and Bellossom had been completely uninterested. From how the Ground type was looking at the jar it was clear that he was interested in trying the other items available instead. Heracross was apart from the others looking out the window at the still cloudy sky and the rain that was supposed to clear up later.

"Alright, anyone else want to try this while we've still got it out?" Alexa asked shaking the jar. Rhydon immediately moved forward, earning a harsh click from Kingler who apparently was also interested. The two pokemon discussed the option briefly before the crab moved forward ahead of the Ground/Rock type. The Water type held forward her smaller claw to take some of the plant matter.

The crab pokemon ate the plant carefully, swallowing a piece then shaking her body at how badly it tasted to her. A spot on her back just behind her spines bulged out and turned yellow, with six small black lines extending forward from it and creating jagged patterns along the spines. Once the lines reached the points at the ends of the spikes a small spark arced across them, causing the Water type to flinch slightly.

"Alright, come over to the charger," Alexa told the new Electric type as she set down the jar. The trainer then walked back over to the small device, only to look back and see the somewhat tired crab standing in place thoughtfully. "Is something wrong?" she asked Kingler with a touch of worry. The Water type responded with a shake of her head, then tapped her large claw on the ground a couple of times with a thoughtful expression.

With a hint of effort the pokemon produced a short display of sparks leaping across all six spines, then attempted to do something with her claw. The ends of the claw were held apart a short distance with noticeable intent, but after a moment the sparks stopped without any effect on the limb. A click of disappointment followed and the crab pokemon shook her body to indicate the results were not entirely to her liking.

"The electricity isn't going to your claw?" Alexa asked interested. The pokemon nodded, then let the heavy limb drop twice to show its weight. "Your power is supposed to be in your claw more than anything?" the trainer followed up slightly amused. Kingler responded by moving closer to Rhydon and then starting the sparking display again, this time with the effect ending by producing a burst of electricity around herself that was quickly absorbed by the Ground type. "Alright, I guess if you already know you don't want to try more you can go back before getting a bigger charge." The altered Water type responded by moving close enough to the larger pokemon to be touching him with the spines, earning her a grumbling reply from the other volunteer.

It was only a short burst of sparks this time to expend the very last part of the small amount of energy the Capacitance had given the Water type. Short enough that the bulge took a moment to recede after its yellow color turned back to match the rest of her shell in the instant it ended. The small black lines took a moment longer, lingering until the shell was fully returned to its previous shape. Kingler made an interested click at the sensation, and then pointed at the Frozen Flame to indicate it did have a similar feeling.

Rhydon then gave a bit of a laugh and moved to the table. Looking at his trainer he pointed at the jar. "Yeah, go ahead. Might as well just move on to the next one," the trainer said with a giggle. The Ground/Rock type carefully took a small amount of the orange fibers out and stepped back. Chewing them with a neutral expression the pokemon gave a bit of a grunt. The two plates just above his shoulders proceeded to turn a dark orange and bulge outward, the jagged edges at the back solidifying backward into a curved point. The next change to occur was for his spiral horn to have its thin grove turn a light blue.

However, at this point a series of sparks began to play across the horn in a display of energy. The Ground type grunted at the sensation and crossed his eyes to see the electricity sparking along the pointed spiral. Looking at the change Charizard flinched noticeably, and pulled his tailflame in front of himself. With a sad expression the Fire type motioned between the fire and the sparking horn. Within moments the sparks ended as the changes reversed themselves with the power reserves emptying out.

"So, he was changing to have constant sparks along his horn?" Alexa asked Charizard as the Ground/Rock pokemon sat down with a huff of exhaustion. The winged reptile nodded and motioned to Kingler's spines, then he turned to Bellossom and gave a grumble. In response the plant pokemon began to shift her leaves in the static charging pattern she had used while they traveled, now causing notable sparks to dance along the edge of her skirt. "He was changing to have something that needed constant generation, but because it was the very start of being changed it instead drained him faster than he could build it up," their trainer deduced, earning a nod from all of the pokemon.

"Well, that technically was the transformation working. It just made a change that undid itself." Alexa moved back to the desk and after a moment of sorting picked up a paper related to the moss. "The reports do say that the most commonly observed outcome of a wild pokemon eating some of this stuff is that they end up discharging the energy within the day. This is just a faster way of having it happen."

Looking at the slightly dejected form of her Ground type Alexa moved closer and pat the large reptile's arm. "Sorry it didn't work out. We'll find something else for you to try." Looking at the group around her the trainer gave a bit of a sigh. "Well, I think it's time to move on. How about you guys, are you up for trying something new next?" The team gave strong affirmative nods. 


	13. Toxin Contagion

\- Toxin Contagion -

The next day started with the team helping their trainer setup a plastic pool outside the lab along with cleaning supplies, much to the confusion of the pokemon. After getting everything around Alexa led them inside where a large metal case was set on the desk along with a few sets of thick gloves for handling hazardous pokemon.

"Right, so looking at the stuff we have available I found one that Bellossom probably didn't want to try," she said while opening the case to take out a large sealed jar of dark purple goop covered in warning labels, a second jar of light blue liquid with different labels, and finally a third of thinner light purple goo. "After all, we already know what a Bellossom with the Poison type looks like." Charizard gave a laugh at the joke that the Grass/Electric type joined in on soon after. The rest of the team's reaction was more subdued, with most of them glaring at the Fire type rather than their trainer.

"Right, so this first jar is full of this really bad toxin people find in places where pokemon that have a primary Poison type live," Alexa continued after holding back a laugh of her own. "It is really poisonous, bad enough that I'm not even leaving it on the table now that you've seen it. Although apparently we are going to end up with more of it soon enough." This statement got curious looks from the group, with Bellossom twirling her arm to indicate her trainer should elaborate. "When they get changed to the Poison type because of this pokemon tend to make more of it on their own."

Putting the deep purple gunk away she tapped on the second jar with the light blue liquid. "This is a powerful anti-toxin, the kind you need to use if you do end up touching that stuff. Now what happened is that while a cleanup team was clearing out a Grimer infested building they got a batch of this stuff contaminated with the toxin." The trainer picked up the third jar. "The result was this stuff. It's just labeled 'Toxin Contagion', but what it does is that instead of making pokemon sick it makes any that touch it into the Poison type."

Charizard looked at the oozing contents and then gave a questioning grunt towards the side of the building where they setup the pool. "Yeah, the pool is for when we're done. The way to turn back is to get a through cleaning with the special supplies we've already setup out there. So that part probably isn't going to be comfortable for you or Rhydon if either of you try," she told the Fire type. Bellossom gave a bit of a glare and rubbed the inside of her flowers briefly. "I remember that problem, don't worry. I won't forget how to keep myself safe while handing poison types after that disaster. I'll be fine, and you can help me make sure everyone else is too."

Kingler and Rhydon both looked at each other and began to discuss the item, their tests the previous day not going to their liking. The plant pokemon spoke up from time to time, giving information based on her prior experience as a secondary Poison type. Heracross walked up to look over the jar of anti-toxin, carefully holding it to look at the label. In the middle of all this Charizard simply walked up to his trainer and looked her in the eye. "You are just going with this because I made a joke, aren't you?" she asked the Fire type while picking up a dropper from the metal case. The flying reptile's serious expression immediately vanished and he gave a laughing huff while nodding.

Everyone turned to watch as their trainer setup the recorder and their teammate carefully took the filled liquid dropper. The Flying type carefully squeezed a drop onto his arm, where it hissed slightly when it sunk into his scales. From that point outward the orange of his scales turned to a purple just a shade darker than the material had been. The yellow of his belly changed to a lighter, nearly blue, purple as his weight increased just slightly. His wings grew out increasing in size as the blue portion darkened a touch. However, when the shifting color reached his tailflame the change progressed in an unusual manner. Instead of the flame changing color it stopped burning entirely, and instead a large blob of the dark purple goop oozed out of the end of his tail clinging to the end in a large gob. His claws and teeth also began to be coated with the toxic substance as the changes ended.

Alexa looked surprised at the changed pokemon. "I think it changed your primary type," she said to the pokemon as he looked over the poison covered parts of his form. The former Fire type moved his tail around with an interested expression, tiny flecks of the purple coat hitting the floor. Bellossom sighed nearby and began to rant at the new Poison pokemon for carelessness, while most of the others looked at the change with some concern. Heracross being an unusual exception, as he instead was looking at the change of primary type with great interest.

"Alright, I think Bellossom has the safety side of things covered," Alexa said to the lizard as she looked over the paperwork again. "The cleaning supplies should be okay for a while, so don't worry about how long you stay like that." Reading one of the papers she hummed in surprise. "Looks like there are reports of pokemon that could also make the anti-toxin too. That seems a bit strange." At this the Poison/Flying pokemon gave an interested growl and looked at his altered tail with consideration, then huffed at his trainer and pointed outside. "Alright, let's try it out, but be careful. We might have plenty of antidotes but that doesn't mean it's okay to poison everyone," she said mirroring old instructions she had once given to the former Gloom. Charizard laughed loudly at the half joking response while the rest of the team gave noises of mild amusement and Bellossom nodded strongly.

Charizard flapped to stay above the large purple glob of toxic goop that he had created earlier. The former Fire type had spent the past couple of hours trying to adapt to a new primary type, with a fair amount of success as the pile was the last of the unintentional ones he had made while experimenting. With a look of concentration he focused on his swinging tail, and the ball of thick toxins at the end of it. After a moment the color began to change, shifting all the way to a light blue. As this happened the liquid thinned noticeably until it was flowing as easily as water around the end of his tail.

"That seems to be it, good job!" Alexa cheered from nearby as the flying pokemon dribbled the anti-toxin on the pile. The effect took a moment to start, but when it did the toxic material quickly melted away into a thinner purple and then spread outwards as it was completely consumed by the light blue color. Bellossom then moved up to the poison scarred area of ground and began to work at re-growing the plants that were once there.

"I'd say that even if this was a bit stranger than usual," the trainer cut herself off with a giggle. "Sorry, I'm just realizing how there is a usual for this to be stranger than. Anyway, I'd say this worked out well." The Poison reptile nodded happily at this, although he did cast a brief glance to the pond nearby as he flapped himself closer.

Rhydon rumbled with interest nearby, and motioned back to the lab. "You want to try too?" Alexa asked the Ground/Rock type who nodded and started to move back to the building. Before they got very far there was a rumble from Charizard. The Poison/Flying pokemon had a wide smile and was waving his tail back and forth while slowly flying closer to his teammate. Charizard looked between the two of them, and then flicked his tail at the Ground type.

"Hey!" Alexa cried out at the attack, then grew quiet noticing the lighter color of the flung Poison type goo. The spots where it had hit Rhydon sizzled, but the solidly built lizard looked them over without pain. Outward from the locations where he had been hit his body the plates began to change to a light purple color. Thin trails of purple ooze started to flow from his various spines as their color changed. The brown colors of his horn and belly changed to a deeper purple and became coated with a thin layer of the toxic goo.

The newly transformed pokemon looked at his body, then up to his amused teammate in the air, and back again. "Did you? Did you just make the stuff that transforms pokemon?" Alexa asked surprised. Rhydon gave a bit of a laugh at the statement, and then ran a clawed hand along his belly picking up a good sized glob of toxic material from the surface of his scales. Then he proceeded to throw it at the flying reptile, hitting the target in the face.

Charizard was laughing as he fell from the sky to clean the poisonous substance from his face. "Ok, while I'll admit that it is interesting you figured out how to do that, please don't do something like that again without permission," Alexa said seriously to the still entertained pokemon. "Changing someone who you can't change back is not safe." Rhydon nodded at this statement, and then gave an entertained rumble as he helped his teammate up. "Although considering we were going in to do this anyway I guess it's okay this time."

Bellossom sparked at this from where she had finished with her repairs and then gave a short speech to the two new poison types. Charizard nodded with some embarrassment at the content while Rhydon responded with a serious rumble while grabbing the former Fire type's arm a bit harder. A confused pair of clicks arrived next as the remaining team members noticed the new change, and Alexa wrote down the details of the transformation as the three pokemon explained the occurrence.

Charizard then spent the majority next hour assisting the pokemon in the various things that he had already attempted with the change. However, a short time before an hour had passed Rhydon's body suddenly stopped producing the toxin, and soon after the other parts of the change began to recede starting with his color returning to normal. The various members of the team looked at this in surprise, with the former Fire type then checking over his own body.

"Was that because you did it to him?" Alexa asked somewhat confused, earning an interested look from the team. "Well, we know there are some pokemon with attacks that can change types. You basically used an attack on him. Maybe it was something similar?" She quickly began to write in the notebook about the event. Rhydon gave an interested rumble at Charizard, and after a moment's hesitation he changed his tail-sludge into the lighter purple of the transformative goo. "You want to see if it happens again?" she asked the Ground type who responded with a nod.

The results were much the same this time around. Rhydon became the same Poison typed form, and then after another hour of testing returned to normal just as suddenly. "Well, congratulations Charizard. You made an attack that makes your opponent Poison type," Alexa said with some pride as Rhydon grumbled good naturedly at the temporary change. Charizard huffed with a slight smile, then motioned to the plastic pool. "Ready to turn back then?" The former Fire type nodded at the question and began to walk over to be cleaned.

The trainer looked prepared to enter a chemical production area as she cleaned off her currently Poison type pokemon. The face mask was proving mostly unneeded for cleaning the former Fire type, there were very few fumes rising up compared to puddles of toxic material, but it was securely attached to the rest as they kept the hazardous goo off her. Alexa was scrubbing the purple scales of the pokemon with a sponge coated in some of the potent cleaner, each scrub sending a wave of the sludge sliding down into the small pool. The color of the reptile pokemon was returning with each pass to Charizard's original orange.

Rhydon was looking at the longer return from the Poison type than the two he had experienced with interest. The pokemon gave a questioning rumble towards his transformed teammate. Charizard was looking mixed on the idea of getting cleaned, and seemed to welcome the distraction as he began to speak with the other pokemon. "I hope this works soon," Alexa said mostly to herself as she moved to try and clean near the blob of toxins at the end of the pokemon's tail.

She very carefully started to try removing some of the blob from the end. "Let me know if this hurts, okay?" she asked before reapplying a bit of cleaner on the sponge and trying to wipe the whole thing off. The two pokemon stopped talking to watch as the large glob slid off easily with the contact of the cleaner. As soon as the sponge went over the tip the end flared with a small fire, and then as Alexa rapidly backed off the tailflame returned. Much like the return from his experience as a Ghost type the colors of his body spread from the fire back up his body. The increased scale and bulk of his body and wings returning as well, with the Fire type being fully restored in short order.

Having taken the head off the suit the pokemon could see that Alexa looked on somewhat upset. Charizard began to help by carefully using a nearby towel to wipe the remains of toxic fluids off of his body. "Did I just spent half an hour cleaning all the parts that I didn't need to?" she asked the Fire type, who shook his head in the negative and pointed at a patch on his thigh she had not completely scrubbed yet. The area still had a hint of purple that was draining away more slowly than elsewhere, and looking over the pokemon she could see other spots she missed behaving the same way.

The somewhat relieved the trainer was surprised when her Ground type tapped her on the shoulder. Rhydon motioned to the lab and then to the purple gunk filling the pool. "Wait, you still want to try it? But you already got changed by Charizard." The plated reptile nodded, then pointed at the cleaning supplies. "You think that because you just turned back on your own it will be different?" his trainer asked with notable interest. "Alright then, sounds like something to test." A rumbling chuckle from Charizard drew her attention, and then she saw him packing up the cleaning supplies while looking at her jokingly. "Even if I will need to clean you as well."

It was only the three of them that went back inside as the others were more interested with various activities outside than seeing the Ground type once again turn Poison. The cleaned dropper was refilled with some more of the contaminated material, and handed to Rhydon. The pokemon easily dripped the substance on his body after his earlier experience. The color change once more spread over his body much the same as earlier. However, soon a major difference occurred as new spines began to grow outward from the new Poison type's back and along the top of his tail. The end of the tail grew a large flat spike at the end, which along with the rest of the spines old and new extruded a thin coat of toxic goo. His chest also changed more, being coated in a very thick layer of the poisonous substance that seemed to replace the plates with a semi-liquid skin.

Alexa and Charizard both looked at this process in wonder, and as it finished the new Poison type gave a deep bubbling laugh at their expressions. The trainer quickly moved forward rapidly talking about the research implications, while the Fire type gave a short bow to the other pokemon with a thoughtful expression. 


	14. Soaked

\- Soaked -

Alexa looked at the pond with her notebook ready, Rhydon nervously standing at the edge. Charizard had wanted to try something with his Water type form, and the Ground/Rock type pokemon was willing to work with him on the project. Apparently it was something that would not work on Kingler, and judging from how the other two were excluded from consideration the trainer suspected it had to do with the previous day's oddities.

She watched the swimming Fire/Water type make waves using its large back fins. The transformed pokemon had been practicing using them to make larger Water type attacks, mostly because he was still unable to get reasonably cool water to come from his mouth. Now he seemed to be trying for something more specific with the water as he prepared. "Are you sure you're okay with this Rhydon?" Alexa asked as she saw Charizard look to her satisfied with his latest pass. The land-bound reptile nodded with some hesitation, then after a moment raised a single claw to indicate he was up for only one attempt. "Alright then, go ahead."

Charizard sent both of them a smile before streaking forward towards Rhydon, water gathering alongside his fins. The two on the shore watched as the water began to glow slightly, before the Water type stopped at the edge of the pond sending the wave crashing into the Ground/Rock type. Alexa watched the attack with some concern, and gasped as Rhydon became visible again. His body was thoroughly changed, with his skin plates replaced by supple scales and his coloration turned to an overall blue. The pokemon looked over his body in surprise while flexing lengthened claws, the changes similar to when he had used the Clearwater Geode. His spines were still hardened lumps that gave the appearance of rocks, and his horn even seemed slightly sharper, but there was no trace of the Ground type in his body this time. Instead of mud studded with rocks he appeared as a harsh reef with sharp points peaking out of blue water.

"You figured out how to transform someone into the Water type yourself?" Alexa asked the still swimming and obviously entertained Charizard. A loud click interrupted them, and Kingler approached looking over the changed pokemon. Charizard started a rumbling conversation with the natural Water type, getting a confused then interested face as the discussion progressed. The trainer watched amused as her third Water type moved to enter the water himself while making an odd face towards the mud at the edge of the pond.

"So, is that attack going to be useful for anything in an actual battle?" Alexa asked with some humor as the three pokemon swam together while talking. Charizard smiled widely and nodded while somewhat strangely Kingler gave a laugh. The Fire typed Water type then pointed at the field, where Bellossom was sunning herself. The Grass/Electric type looked up at this and gave a questioning whistle. "Okay, I guess when we can switch that would help a lot," the trainer said with a giggle.

It was only fifteen or twenty minutes later that the still swimming Rhydon began to slightly panic. The group looked at him in concern, and Alexa noticed his coloration darkening while he was near the middle of the pond. Quickly the trainer reached down and pulled up his pokeball to return the soon to be Ground/Rock type. The rest of the team looked at the ripples of his brief struggle with worry. "I guess it doesn't last as long," the trainer said sadly while turning to release him onto solid ground.

When Rhydon finished reforming he was fully returned to his normal appearance and types. The pokemon gave a sigh of relief, and then a good natured rumble at the others to show he was okay. "Right, I'd say from here on out we're not doing any activities that require someone having a certain type when we don't know how long a change lasts," Alexa said looking seriously at the group. Bellossom gave a burst of sparks at this, and Kingler clacked her claws together in agreement.

"So, I guess the next thing would be to try again to figure out how long it lasts?" she asked somewhat nervously looking at her Ground type. The armored pokemon thought it over for a moment, before turning towards Charizard and nodding. The Fire type smiled at this, but pointed at the Geode sitting well out of the way of any activities next to the pile of notes Alexa was using.

After refreshing his own transformation the finned pokemon swam a bit refining the process that produced the slight glow. Rhydon was once more standing by the edge, this time much more confident. When both pokemon were sufficiently ready the Fire/Water type sent another glowing wave crashing into his teammate. Rhydon immediately moved his newly transformed body closer to the edge of the water, but this time did not go back in.

The blue scaled reptile instead spent a moment concentrating before spitting out a burst of water at the others in the pond. Alexa laughed as her Water types all began a contest of accuracy and agility that did not involve the most temporary of them getting in the water itself. Heracross and Bellossom soon joined her in simply sitting nearby watching the antics while waiting for the change to end. This time it was nearly half an hour before Rhydon returned to his natural typing.

Charizard then managed to convince them to try two more times, with both of those also having a duration of about half an hour. "I guess that one's going to be a thing for you now isn't it Charizard?" she asked the Fire type as they all got out of the pond to take a break from the testing. The open mouthed smile the pokemon gave her made sure that she knew he would likely try to do this again with other types as well.

Charizard managed to convince Alexa that more testing and training in the new move was needed. This was something of a feat considering her father revealed that the move Soak was already known and had a similar, if not quite as transformative, effect. Rhydon even agreed to play the test subject, but only after getting an hour of use out of the Clearwater Geode to try out the Water type some more under his own terms.

Currently they were getting ready for another go after having confirmed the half hour typical length with three previous attempts. Kingler was swimming along in the pond interested in the effects, while Heracross was standing near Alexa well away from the target area. Bellossom was being somewhat smug about her new typing giving her an advantage over the victims of the move while standing just a short ways off from Rhydon.

The Grass/Electric type was giving a dancing speech to the Ground/Rock type that he was mostly ignoring with a calm expression. Charizard looked to the other reptile and gave a questioning rumble. With a nod from the target pokemon he took off, only for Kingler to give a loud clack of her claws just as he began.

Distracted by the worried sound Charizard turned just a moment too late to stop the move. As a result the wave was sent wide, hitting a larger portion of the shore than intended. Alexa heard a surprised chirp and saw how Bellossom was just within the edge of the attack. Water crashed over the altered Grass type, briefly obscuring her form. As the deluge cleared the trainer could see the move had hit. Bellossom's body was drastically altered, with the blue coloration of her now rubbery skin being a minor change overall. Her skirt like leaves were replaced by a series of tentacles with thick webbing between them, although they still seemed to move like a dancer's outfit. Her arms were similarly changed into stubby blue appendages covered with small suckers. The two flowers on her head were replaced with a pair of red bumps that seemed to be a harder material.

Alexa took in the sight worried as the now pure Water type pokemon looked ahead in shock. Then the now octopus like pokemon began to angrily rant at Charizard for his carelessness, with sparks arcing between the red bumps on her head and the nearby plants moving sluggishly. Rhydon, also hit by the wave, gave a laugh at the display and looked back to their trainer with a smile. He then stamped the ground causing it to tremble slightly and getting everyone's attention, and distracting them all from the smug look on the natural Water type.

"You can still use your abilities?" Alexa asked looking over both events. "Wait, that does fit." She then moved to get the paper with an explanation of the known move off the now customary pile she brought outside to read through while the team trained. "Soak doesn't stop them from using their original skills, it only makes it harder because they are just Water type after getting hit by it. Well, it also changes their resistances, but that is easier to adapt to in a battle." Motioning for the changed pokemon to come closer the trainer walked into the damp area.

Bellossom quickly moved forward, tentacles shifting in a beautiful way that seemed to make the blue shimmer into different shades. Alexa stopped at the sight of it. "You can move," she said earning a disgruntled look from the waterlogged pokemon. "No, I mean that you are able to move your body easily. That doesn't usually happen," she clarified with some worry.

The team now gathered around the edge of the pond worried, with Kingler's prior smugness transformed into a regretful concern. "Alright, we shouldn't just mope around waiting to see if this will be okay," Alexa said after a minute of tense silence. "Let's see what exactly you can still do while transformed by this move."

Trying out moves and doing a basic comparison of prior uses took the entire half hour. It was determined that Bellossom was still producing electricity at about the same rate as before, but she wasn't able to use it at the same power level. She could also still manipulate plants and produce Grass type moves, but also reduced in capacity. Rhydon was similarly able to use both his Ground and Rock type abilities at a reduced power. Notably they were also both able to use Water type abilities, or at least Rhydon managed to do so easily.

Finally after spending the half an hour testing out the change's effects Bellossom stopped moving and smiled at the feeling of her body returning to normal. Her skin returned to the yellow tone it had taken after using Capacitance, and the texture ceased being like rubber. Her tentacles themselves thinned and merged with the webbing between them, changing color to an alternating patter of green and yellow with black stripes before splitting back into leaves. Lastly the two smooth bumps on her head shifted to the orange color of her altered flowers with the small black stripes returning, and split apart like a bud into her flowers.

Alexa watched this and let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, you look fine," she said as the team's mood improved greatly. "Actually, it looks like a move's change doesn't cause as many differences as the things we have been trying. Like how Rhydon barely changed when Charizard made him into a Poison type compared to when we used the Contagion." The trainer then blinked and corrected herself, "Even if this was a bigger physical change than when you tried the Geode."

Bellossom nodded at her trainer's speculation thoughtfully. Then got an interested look on her face and began to motion to Charizard. While explaining out loud to the others she used her teammate's tailflame to mimic an enemy, then pointed to his large fins and the water, and then at Kingler. Alexa looked on interested as the explanation that went with the display was discussed by her pokemon. "You think this could be useful for making you less vulnerable to things like Fire types?" she asked getting a nod from the pokemon.

"Huh, that might work depending on the rules for using moves on teammates. We'd probably need a double battle or to set it up before a match though," the trainer said considering the idea. She then laughed at the thought. "We are going to end up a really strange team to fight by the end of all this."

Rhydon's muddy brown form spat another blast of water towards Charizard. Seeing the lack of glow in the projectile the Fire/Flying pokemon dodged immediately and was only slightly hit by the misty edge of the blast. The Ground/Water type grumbled at the latest failed attempt at the transforming move that his current target had been bombarding him with all morning and the previous day. The other reptile began a brief conversation at this trying to refine the attempts with possibly more excitement than someone should have at being attacked by their weakness.

Alexa was paying this effort half a mind as they had spent two resets of Rhydon's transformation on it already. She was mainly looking over the summary documents for the various transformative items they had available. The team was rather interested in the concept of being able to change the type of other pokemon, so she was looking over the options for something that would fit that theme.

Bellossom was staying away from the attempts as she was not interested in a repeat of her earlier transformation. She was instead working with Heracross on her electric attacks. Kingler was trying to help some with the experimenting pair in an attempt to learn the move herself as well.

Rhydon had a thoughtful look as he discussed the prior attempts. With a nod he motioned for the Fire type to get ready. With some concentration he opened his mouth and then began to prepare another blast of water. A ball of liquid formed at the back of his throat, then after a moment a dim glow appeared in the forming attack. Seeing this Charizard let out an encouraging growl and braced for the attack.

The blast of slightly glowing water crashed over the target pokemon briefly obscuring him and when he was visible once more it was in a different form then the usual one from when he used the Geode's water to transform himself. Charizard's wings were still present, although their shape was more streamlined with a smooth edge lacking their normal blunt claws. His coloration was altered to instead have a bright blue in place of orange along his body, with a lighter almost white along his belly and wing membranes. His hands and feet were still altered with longer webbed claws. Finally the end of his tail was still a single point rather that the fin of the other transformation, but the flame at the end had been replaced with a large globe of water like the toxin that had sat there for his Poison type form.

The pokemon looked over his changed body with interest, and then immediately turned and fired a blast of water towards the pond. Everyone looked up at the attack, and all gave a bit of good natured laughter at how it was for once lacking in excess heat. Charizard rushed over to Rhydon and rapidly shook the Ground type's webbed claw with his own before rushing back to the edge of the water to continue making various attacks that did not automatically send off steam.

Kingler moved closer to the two pokemon and began to question Rhydon on specifics of the attack. The brown reptile for his part made a couple more attempts to use the ability without a target as part of his explanation, with varying degrees of glow as he worked to get a better handle on the attack. With minor interest now that the feat had been reproduced Bellossom moved a bit closer and started asking some questions of her own, earning an intrigued look from Rhydon.

Alexa simply laughed a moment at the experiment before setting down the summaries to get out a notebook. "Alright, let's see how much of that you can tell me," she said to the pokemon, who began a halting attempt to cross the language barrier.

As the discussion continued it turned out that the results of the move ended up being less potent than even the first use by Charizard. The Fire type was back to normal after only around ten minutes, and was immediately rushing back with a smile to demand his teammate make another attempt. Rhydon did so with the result being a blast with a notably stronger glow. "You know, you were using a lot of water yourself there. Maybe that has something to do with why it wore off faster," Alexa pointed out.

The winged pokemon acknowledged the point with a brief nod, but proceeded to continue his exploration of using the Water type while not by nature heating the water as he made it. He sent several blasts of water out at comparatively low temperature. Then he tried a couple Scald attacks, which were easily accomplished but did not reach their usual heat. This continued while Rhydon worked with Kingler on trying to teach the crab pokemon how to use the transforming move they had developed.

This task was not going very well compared to the other Water type pokemon's recent successes, as shown by Kingler's increasing annoyance. Midway through the conversation the Ground type's own transformation reached its end. In response Rhydon moved to pick up the Clearwater Geode to be ready for what seemed like the inevitable next request by Charizard to become a pure Water type, only to pause just before taking the stone. He then looked back towards the natural water type and gave a grunt at the stone. Alexa noticed this and moved to assist. "You think that being able to use this attack is related to using the Geode?" she asked to make sure she understood his reasoning. The Ground/Rock pokemon nodded and filled the stone with the small bottle of water set nearby for that purpose. He then moved to hand it to Kingler. The crab pokemon gave a click, and then with some help from Rhydon drank a good portion of the glowing water out of the stone.

The three of them watched Kingler for a few moments while the sound of splashing water filled the air from Charizard's personal project. After half a minute the natural water type gave a series of questioning clicks. Rhydon responded with a calm growl before refilling the stone to try again. The result was much the same, as Kingler was not only showing no effect but also seemed to not be experiencing the sensations that Rhydon was attempting to show her. "Sorry, Kingler. Maybe we can find another way for you to learn how to do it."

Noticing the state of his teammates Charizard gave a questioning growl. After being informed by a dull series of clicks from Kingler the normally Fire type pokemon gave a grunt of amusement. He then pointed at the still setup plastic pool they had used to clean off the Poison type. At this Alexa groaned loudly. "That's a great idea Charizard, but scrubbing down two pokemon is enough for me for a few days."

The trainer looked over her team and their varied forms. "Still, that is a point, there are other transformations that could possibly help her figure it out." The group gathered together with thoughtful expressions. "The Frozen Flame is too risky for trying this sort of thing." Kingler clicked a bit sadly at this but nodded. "Crystal Syurp could work, but it lasts a while." Rhydon rumbled thoughtfully while looking over the grassy field. "The Ashes are out for that same reason, unless Heracross wants to try and make the rest of you fire types." The Bug type clicked somewhat amused but shook his head. "The Geode doesn't work. Bellossom could try to make an Electric type version." The plant pokemon nodded at that interested. "Why don't we wait a bit on this one? Let me see what else I can find first, maybe there is something easy we haven't tried yet," Alexa finally suggested looking to the crab pokemon. Kingler considered this for a moment and then nodded in acceptance. 


	15. Chitin Powder

\- Chitin Powder -

"Okay, this is what I found," Alexa began holding up a jar of blueish grey powder. "Chitin Powder, found in the fossilized ruins of massive Bug type pokemon hives. This stuff turns whoever it is sprinkled on into a Bug type for around three days." Charizard was near the front of the group next to Kingler, both were looking at the substance with great interest. Bellossom was staying back near Heracross at seeing the powdery material remembering the issues with the last powder they tried. Rhydon was looking between his Fire and Water type teammates with some amused resignation.

"Now, these documents say that it 'changes the least appropriate type to Bug', without clarifying what types are less appropriate in general. So this might alter either of your types, or it might even not change either of them, I'm not sure." The trainer looked at her crab pokemon directly. "The important part for our current goal is that pokemon transformed by this powder are known to gain the ability to produce more themselves." The team nodded at this and the two at the front shared a smile.

"So, this is known to let you make more of the stuff, doesn't last too long, and should be safe enough to try with," the trainer told the two of them. "With this one though I want to try and test that a bit more thoroughly. The notes only talk about the pokemon making more powder without trying to directly use it on another pokemon, only making some and after storing them for a bit trying out the effects. So, worst case this stuff will last the full three days on whoever you try to attack with it," she said to the team moving her gaze to Rhydon in particular. The Ground/Rock type pokemon nodded contently at the prospect.

"Later on I want to go back and have Charizard or someone try to make some more Toxin Contagion to see what happens if that is left to sit. I want to see if what is made that way will work the same as the stuff here." Alexa pointed at the metal case still on the desk. "So first we can see what this Chitin Powder does in the same cases and get an idea if it might." The team gave approval for this idea, with Charizard eyeing the case thoughtfully.

"So, are you ready?" Alexa asked Kingler. The crab pokemon nodded rapidly and scuttled forward. Alexa carefully opened the jar, and after getting a nod from the pokemon poured a light dusting of it over her body.

The group watched for a few moments as the small flakes sunk into her shell before it became apparent that nothing was happening. "Should we try again?" Alexa asked confused. The crab pokemon nodded, and this time grabbed a pinch out of the jar herself with her smaller claw. With a toss she sent most of it over her body, the small grey powder sinking in once again to no effect. Kingler looked at the last of it before moving it to her mouth to try and taste it. After eating the remaining amount the crab shook her body with an annoyed expression.

Alexa groaned out loud at the result palming her face with her hand. "Of course, I find one that looks perfect and it doesn't work on you." The trainer spent a moment with her face covered before removing her hand and giving a serious look at the pure Water type pokemon. "Alright, if you're willing to spend a few days that way to give me a break from cleaning pokemon, I'll let you use the Toxin Contagion," the trainer offered setting down the jar and opening the case. Kingler paused the annoyance replaced by serious contemplation.

After a minute of soft clicking as the pokemon went over the idea to herself she nodded. Alexa once more filled the dropper and handed the toxic material to her pokemon. The drop of semi-liquid immediately was absorbed into the pokemon's shell, causing a wave of deep green coloration to replace her usual red. The white parts of her body changed to a slightly darker shade of green with her legs also getting small lighter green spots. The insides of her claws and tips of her large spines began to secrete the thick purple sludge typical of pokemon transformed with the Contagion, and her upper shell took on a rougher texture of closely packed spines.

The transformed pokemon gave a quick clack of her claw, sending small drops of poison splattering around and earning one of the now typical rants about the safe use of the Poison type from Bellossom. Charizard moved up to the desk as the former Poison type gave an in depth monologue to the new one. With a smirk he lightly tapped a claw on the side of the Chitin Powder jar. "You still want to do the tests I was thinking of for this stuff?" Alexa asked him receiving a nod. "Sure you don't want to help with teaching her how to use the Poison type instead?" This time he just smiled widely and shook his head. "Alright then, might as well see if this stuff works at all," she said taking another small pinch to sprinkle on the reptile.

This time the effects were immediate, with Charizard's skin rapidly turning a lime green and beginning to harden into segmented plates. His face and head became more angular, with flat surfaces replacing the smooth scales and his two horns becoming more curved and pointed. His arms became noticeably segmented with his shoulders and elbows becoming ball like. His three clawed hands altered greatly, with the three fingers moving to be equally distant from each other in a circle and expanding while hardening into large claws. The resulting shape was almost rounded when closed, with only slight indents where the edges met. His legs became similarly segmented, but his toe claws remained almost the same. On his back his wings folded tightly and seemed to harden into a thick shell, then when finished this opened to reveal four thin insectoid wings. Finally his long tail expanded and flattened to become uniform in width as the segmented shell formed over it, and as the effect reached the tip his flame went out and a large stinger formed.

The new Bug type gave an entertained buzz as he took off to hover over the floor. He then moved closer to Heracross with a low humming sound as the large but thin wings propelled him in the air somewhat clumsily. Kingler gave an amused click at the former Fire type as he began to compare body parts with the currently Fire type Bug, who seemed to have not expected the inquiry. Alexa simply shook her head at the pokemon's excitement at using his new shape. "I wonder if Josh is finding Hoenn as weird as home is being for us?" she asked humorously.

Rhydon chuckled as he poked at the toxic goo currently coating his chest. Kingler was happily clicking as she carefully poured lighter purple toxin into a jar for Alexa to have them test later to see if it would act like the minor change of using the substance as a move or if it would cause the full change. Charizard was giving clicks of his own in amusement as he buzzed around the field getting used to the more rigid form that his Bug type featured. "Congratulations, hopefully that will help with the Water type variant," Alexa told the pokemon happily.

The trainer was rather satisfied with the progress so far on the team's project of getting more information on their altered moves to change the type of other pokemon. Kingler had spent the time after being transformed the previous day and all of the morning just learning to produce the anti-toxin, and after that it had just been getting the correct mix based on color. On the other hand trying to make more of the Bug type transformation powder had been held off, as Charizard's transformation had been rather extensive and he was only just getting used to the alterations. This delay was fine with the trainer as she wanted them to wait on creating more Chitin Powder until after the Poison type testing had been done just in case the Bug type change ended up lasting the full duration.

Rhydon started to question the crab and former lizard about the toxic substance as he continued to look over the portions of his body that currently extruded it. Charizard quickly flew over to help, continuing a trend of not walking at all after being changed into a Bug type by buzzing overhead. "Are you going to try and make the anti-toxin while it's just the temporary change?" Alexa questioned the group as the reptilian Poison type concentrated on his stomach. They nodded to their trainer and proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes working on the task.

At that point the temporary transformation ended and Rhydon's body returned to normal. Charizard gave a series of clicks that seemed somewhere between excited and disappointed at this. Kingler responded with a click of agreement while poking a small blob of toxin created during their short experiment. "Alright, looks like Kingler can use the move version of Toxin Contagion. Are you willing to see what happens with Charizard's Chitin Powder?" Alexa asked the Ground/Rock type. The pokemon nodded somewhat eagerly looking over his now somewhat beetle-like teammate.

"Ok, we're going to start without anyone as the target," Alexa told the former Fire type. Charizard nodded jerkily and moved well away from the others in a quick flight. "I want to try and collect it, so wait for me to get the cloth out!" she called after him earning a humming sound. She quickly grabbed the relatively thick sheet of material made for collecting and moving powder type attacks and set it up in the area he had moved into. The rest of the team was standing well back and upwind of the location, and after she set up the cloth the currently Bug/Flying type pokemon gave an annoyed series of clicks and softly shoved her a good ways out of the area. "Yeah, yeah. Just to be safe," Alexa replied as she joined the others at the safe distance.

With a touch of concentration he buzzed for a moment and then shook his tail rapidly producing a short rain of dust. Alexa took another empty jar from the small set of them she had prepared for these tests and walked forward. Looking over the cloth she shook her head at the Bug/Flying pokemon. "This looks like Poison Powder, I think you had your mind too set on what Kingler and Rhydon were doing," she informed him, and then with a suspicious look continued, "Although it is a slightly odd shade of purple, so I guess you might be trying to be funny and re-create the wrong stuff." Charizard shook his head, a strange sight as it moved near instantly from one direction to the other. "We might need to make sure, but you should try again," she told him carefully using the cloth to pour the powder into the jar without touching it.

The next attempt seemed closer to Sleep Powder as it was a light blue color, and the third was definitely just a Stun Spore attack. After these three failures, pending testing for two of them possibly being merely the wrong type, the rest of the team had moved on to discussing with each other leaving just Alexa and Charizard working on the task. Charizard did not seem upset over the difficulties, but Alexa had become well aware that the degree of change to his body had made understanding him much harder while she was getting used to the changes herself.

The two of them setup the area again, and this time the Bug type moved to look over the jars containing his previous attempts for a moment before moving to try again. This time he focused more on his wings with them stopping for just long enough for Alexa to clearly see them and then glowing as a blueish grey powder rained down on the cloth. Alexa waited a moment for the dust to settle on the fabric before moving forward to look it over. "I think this is it," Alexa told the pokemon with a smile. "Rhydon, I think we're ready!" she then called out to the distracted Ground/Rock type.

The pokemon looked up interested and then hurried over. He eagerly moved to help with getting the latest dusting of powder into the jar, quickly waved off by his trainer who gave chuckle at his excitement. "Okay, let's try this," she said putting the lid on the container and walking to the safe distance. Charizard gave a quick series of clicks that might have been laughter and proceeded to repeat the move of sending wing-focused grey powder over his target, this time his teammate.

As the dusting hit Rhydon's body his plates began to split into more mobile segments and take on a shiny outer coating. The two horns at the center of his face smoothed over slightly and the spiraled one gained a curve towards the other pointed horn. The outer plates coming off his head changed into a series of smoothly curved horns themselves. The row of spikes along his spine receded into his body as his back was replaced by a large split beetle shell. Much like Charizard his arms and legs became segmented and more angular, although the claws on his hands remained the same rather than changing to a more insect-like form. His tail shrunk slightly, but for the most part remained the same.

It took a full half minute of them watching the pokemon after that to realize he was not going to change color this time. "Huh, which type did you lose?" Alexa asked interested as the pokemon in front of her still looked mostly the same overall. Rhydon raised a claw to his face and considered a moment, closing his eyes and swaying his shortened tail a bit, before shaking his head at his trainer. "You didn't lose a type?" she questioned, earning a rather perplexed nod.

Alexa began to ponder this as Charizard flew in close to the newest Bug type and began a clicking discussion. "Did you stop being either with the toxin?" she asked after a few minutes of looking over the jars of powder. Rhydon started to nod, then tipped his head sideways for a moment. He pointed at Charizard and shook his head, then moved to point at the jar of purple goo and nodded. "So you lost your type with the toxin itself, but not when you were hit by the temporary move. Maybe this is working the same. If you turn back after a short while we should see if you lose a type using the other powder," Alexa said as her pokemon nodded in agreement.

The three of them moved to join the other's and the team began to work on getting the new Bug types used to the changes. After around half an hour Rhydon's body suddenly lost its shiny texture, and the alterations to his horns, spikes, and tail all reverted to his normal appearance. "Alright then, I guess that is some evidence that being used as an attack directly does make it less potent," the trainer said happily at the new information. "Now all we need to do is let this," she said tapping the jar of Chitin Powder Charizard had made, "sit for a bit and then try it and see if it last the full time." Rhydon nodded seriously at this with an entertained smile.

Alexa had decided to wait until the next morning before testing the collected Chitin Powder. The team was waiting in the lab again as Alexa looked over the two jars. One had the labeling on the lid showing it was the original jar that had transformed Charizard, while the second had a smaller label along the side that the trainer had added to the filled jars after taking them inside.

"Well Rhydon, are you up for spending a few days as a Bug?" she asked the Ground/Rock type, who replied with a chuckle. Charizard gave the laughing clicks of his altered form and then another series while clacking his three-part claws. Heracross simply shook his head at the antics of the former Fire type. The still reptilian pokemon moved forward as Alexa opened the jar of powder with the smaller homemade label.

This time as the powder hit Rhydon's body the changes in his shape were more pronounced. His two horns not only became more pointed, but also grew larger with the spiral horn gaining some ability to move upwards to pinch together with the more solid one. The plated area where his upper and lower body connected also became less defined, with the small ridge all but disappearing as the overall form became shiny segmented plates. The beetle shell that formed as the spines on his back retreated split more thoroughly, and for a brief moment during the change they opened to reveal wings underneath. His tail shrank notably more, becoming more an abdomen at the end of his body. These changes were accompanied by the prior alterations to his plate like spikes and limbs, which were much the same as the previous day's transformation. Finally it seemed that once again he was not going to have any change in coloration.

"Alright, from looks alone I'd say that letting it sit makes it stronger," Alexa told the pokemon as he experimentally opened the back of his shell. Charizard gave an eager buzz at the sight of the wings and gave a questioning click towards Heracross. The natural Bug type looked at Alexa with an amused expression before using his own wings to move across the room to join the two transformed bugs.

Charizard landed and began to go over the wings on his own back, with Heracross interrupting him from time to time to correct minor errors the actual Flying type pokemon made. The rest of the team simply watched with amusement. Kingler shook her body at the sight and resumed the discussion on her current poison type she had been having with Bellossom. Alexa used the opportunity to take notes, and after a moment of thought pictures, regarding the addition of wings despite not adding the Flying type. Rhydon for his part was looking back at the new body parts with fascination and listening intently to the other two pokemon give their advice.

Midway through this Heracross stopped suddenly and gave a click of surprise as a hiss like water putting out a fire began to emit from his body. Everyone turned to see the beetle pokemon's body was starting to return to his original typing by having small flakes of black ash fall from it. The fiery cracks were filling in as the pieces of soot dropped out of them, and the dark colored shell was slowly returning to its lighter blue color as the dark material fell away. After a minute or two of the dark ash piling up on the tile floor below the Bug type's feet his entire form was back to its original color. Heracross shook himself at this, sending a few stray bits of the black dust tumbling down, and then happily gave a punch upwards that was so forceful that it made a whip-crack.

"You're back to normal," Alexa congratulated the pokemon along with the rest of the team. "It's a bit early, but that wasn't a perfect time limit. Also I wonder if how much you disliked it made it shorter too." The Bug/Fighting pokemon happily nodded barely paying attention, instead he was focused on moving around now that he had his original secondary type back.

Watching the pokemon move his body in multiple ways to test the changes in motion made the trainer smile, although Heracross was obviously having some trouble from not having used the increased strength for almost an entire month. "I'm guessing you aren't going to want to try anything else after that," she told the pokemon with some regret. The Fighting type looked at her surprised and then shook his head, he then pointed at Charizard who was still standing next to Rhydon with his thin clear wings spread wide.

Alexa looked at the larger insect pokemon, then back to Heracross. "Primary type, you would be fine with getting a different primary type," she said earning a nod. "Well, then I guess that is another project for me, finding something that usually changes that." The trainer began to move to the papers to search before stopping herself. "Oh, while we're talking about changing types, what happened with yours Rhydon?" she asked the newest beetle pokemon.

He gave a higher pitched growl than normal before concentrating for a moment. There was a brief rumble through the ground nearby, and he turned a confused look to his trainer. "So you lost the Rock type?" she asked with confusion of her own. His shell still seemed rather rocky in nature, even if it now had a shine as if it was highly polished. Rhydon shook his head in response, and then after a moment of thinking held up a hand with all three claws splayed outward.

Alexa blinked at the response, and the rest of the team made noises of surprise at this declaration. "You are all three? All at once?" the trainer asked getting a nod that was just as surprised as the reactions of the others. "We should make sure this isn't temporary," she continued after a moment, "Well, more temporary. If this does last the full three days then I guess neither of your Ground or Rock types were 'least appropriate'." The pokemon gave a light laugh at this and nodded again. 


	16. Fighting Shape

\- Fighting Shape -

Alexa was technically reading over documents as her team helped Heracross get used to being a Fighting type again. She was actually spending a lot more time watching the sight of the Bug/Fighting pokemon happily working to get back into shape. The natural beetle pokemon was already moving as easily as he had before the change, and his blows were still strong. Something easily demonstrated as another rock set up in the field cracked in two as his horn crashed into it.

A good natured clicking rumble echoed from near the lake at this. Rhydon's contribution was to create more rocks for targets, and to deal with the remains of those already used. The currently three typed beetle was taking the process easy, spending much of his time testing out his new wings. The non-Flying type pokemon was still fairly clumsy while using them, but they were strong enough to let him simply fly new stones into position. He was happily taking his time experiencing the new ability whenever a replacement was needed.

Kingler was off to the side of the main field near the pond. She was still mostly working with Bellossom on her new Poison type. The crab had already worked out a number of ways to produce blasts and slashes of toxic material with her dripping large claw. The former Poison type plant was currently having her teammate work with the light blue watery anti-toxin. The Grass/Electric type had some Oran and Pecha berries out, and seemed to be trying to compare the liquid to the soft and sweet pink berry. Alexa had seen the plant pokemon eat two of the Pecha berries so far, but the trainer was willing to let the two of them use a few more in the hope that they could succeed in making a method to cure poisoning.

Charizard was still buzzing around to help the natural Bug type. The transformed pokemon had flown near constantly since his latest change into the Bug type. Alexa was in a way glad to see this, as for the past month she had rarely seen her Flying type actually enjoy being in the air. Heracross on the other hand was not quite enjoying any attempts to try to hit the swiftly moving target this produced. The two beetle-like creatures had been taking turns between sparing with each other and attacking the stone targets.

Heracross looked at his foe with a thoughtful expression as they switched over to aiming at the Flying type as a target. With a smile he waited for the buzzing sorta-beetle to get relatively close, and then shot his claw forward quickly. A burst of flame went around the limb as it moved forward, sending Charizard back suddenly in surprise with a worried clicking. Alexa laughed at the attack. "Got something out of it at least?" she asked Heracross who was also laughing at the reaction of the usual prankster. Charizard nodded at that before motioning for them to continue, and they began to refine the Fighting type's Fire Punch attack.

"Well Heracross, how does it feel to be the only pokemon who is their original type?" Alexa asked a short time later as they took a break. The pokemon paused at this and looked around the field at the Bug, Electric, and Poison types he had for teammates. Then he looked over his blue shell free of any glowing orange lines. He gave a click that did not seem to mean he had a clear answer to the question.

Charizard seemed to find this funny, and after a few days of it Alexa was even getting used to the major changes this transformation had caused in his voice. Translating the buzzes and clicks into the old growls she recognized still took a moment, but was getting better. The Flying type actually landed next to them for the first time that day and began to speak, only to stop suddenly. The trainer looked on unsure as he curled in on himself, and the rest of the team soon noticed and moved to get a better look.

The large Bug type's form huddled inward, and seemed to be getting dull in color. After a moment his body was stiff and greyed as if petrified. Then there was a crackling sound, that grew louder for a moment. Finally the back of the shell burst open as Charizard's original wings broke free from the chitin. His natural head soon follow snaking out of the produced hole. After a bit of flapping and some squeezing the Fire/Flying type was once more present, standing next to the molted shell of his transformed self.

Rhydon looked at this display with some trepidation, and Kingler and Bellossom had concerned looks towards the event. Heracross was laughing, and gave a clicking question to the restored Fire type. "Well, that was... strange," Alexa finally managed moving closer to the empty shell somewhat nervously. Charizard for his part seemed fine with the event, giving a joking growl in response to the natural Bug type's question before moving to poke at the resulting skin himself.

"Okay, well. What do you want to do with it?" Alexa uneasily asked the pokemon. Charizard shrugged at the question and pointed at the lab. "Test it in the lab?" the trainer asked with actual worry, getting a smiling nod. "Right, I say that's a project for dad. We'll, we'll just get it in there, and he can take care of the rest. Ok?" In the end Heracross had to push Rhydon to get the remaining Bug type to help, while Charizard was perfectly happy to make the attempt. The remainder of the team vaguely stood nearby and held open doors as they moved the discarded shell into the lab. 


	17. Powder and Toxin

\- Powder and Toxin -

Kingler looked between the cleaning area they had setup, her own poison filled claw, and Charizard standing nearby. After a moment the goo in her claw was replaced by a glowing blue liquid, although it was noticeably thicker than water. Her Fire type teammate was looking at her somewhat annoyed, and casting his eyes to the side where Alexa had a Pecha berry just in case this test failed.

With a nod from her trainer the pokemon flicked a small amount of the substance onto the reptile, where it immediately sunk into his scales. Charizard breathed a sigh of releif at this and nodded to his trainer. "Alright then, looks like you two managed to make a move to cure poisons," their trainer said to Kingler and Bellossom as she set down the berry to make some more notes on the topic.

The team was finishing the tests of the various materials collected earlier. With Charizard back to normal they had a subject for the various powders he had made and Kingler's small batch of Toxin Contagion that had been left to sit. So far they had confirmed that the third powder was merely Stun Spore, with further attempts put off as the two female pokemon had completed their own project.

"Next up is the blue powder," Alexa said to the group while picking up a thick skinned Chesto Berry. "Which is probably just Sleep Powder, but we want to make sure." Charizard moved over to a spot some distance from the others as his trainer then opened the jar of powder.

The flakes fell onto the Fire type without any immediate effect beyond a large yawn. Charizard began to sway and generally looked exhausted as he struggled to concentrate. The Sleep effect was one that greatly impaired the affected pokemon's ability to operate, with only specialized moves being possible in that state. The typical result of an opponent being rendered sleepy was the massive distraction and occasional nodding off currently displayed by the Fire type.

With a bit of effort the reptile took the berry and chewed on it for a moment before swallowing. Instantly awake again Charizard looked at the jar with some anger that quickly morphed into disappointment. "Okay, that one wasn't something to change pokemon either," Alexa said closing the jar again. "Still, you got the basic powder attacks down quick," she tried to comfort the winged lizard. With the start of a smile he nodded and began to point to the final jar of powder.

"Final powder test, light purple," Alexa said picking up the last jar. "Likely Poison Powder, but we want to make sure it isn't some sort of dried Toxin Contagion." Charizard laughed at the prospect and waited for the likely toxic powder to be used.

The purple flakes fell onto his skin, spreading the color outward in a slightly darker shade as they did so. Soon it became clear that the result was actually going to be a transformation. As it finished the slightly more heavyset Poison/Flying pokemon chuckled bubbly at the change. Alexa watched dumbly as he moved to question his crab teammate on the details of the poison cure move. "Well, congratulations. You managed to make a substance that turns pokemon into Poison types without being one," the trainer said moving her gaze over to the large plastic pool. "Which also means I have two, wait. Three, we still need to test the goo, so three pokemon to clean. At least as soon as-"

She was interrupted by a cracking sound echoing across the field. Looking over to where the Bug types had been practicing they saw Rhydon's shell splitting open to let his original form out. Rhydon seemed alright at first, but the Ground/Rock pokemon did move rather quickly away from the remains of his transformation. Heracross laughed a bit at the response and Charizard joined in soon after.

"Well, we know that's normal for those changes then," Alexa commented still a bit unsure about how the Chitin Powder's ended its effects. "How about this Rhydon," she called out to the pokemon picking up the last jar containing Kingler's toxin, "Are you up for giving me more work?" The reptile moved closer rather quickly and started to nod before pointing over at the bottles of cleaning product sitting by the pool. "Yeah, we have plenty. Although given what Charizard just pulled off we might need to look for alternatives," she told him before sending a halfhearted glare at her Flying type.

They soon had confirmation that it worked the same as the thick purple goo had much the same result as that of the portion they had received in the metal case when used on Rhydon. Alexa looked over the extra spines and liquid covered chest with some interest. "When we were cleaning you off that was rather thick wasn't it?" she asked pointing at the latter. Rhydon nodded thoughtfully, before sticking his hand quite some ways into his chest.

The pokemon soon stopped and slowly pulled it back out with a worried expression. "Uh, there," Alexa started concerned, "There was something in there, right?" During the cleaning they had saved that part for last and the reptile had already started returning to normal by that point. Rhydon looked at his toxin covered claw a bit numbly, the goo just past the halfway point along his arm. He shook his head slowly towards his trainer. "Okay then, that's fine. I'm sure that's fine. I mean we did this before right?" she asked somewhat worried.

The pokemon looked over his chest for a moment. "Do you want to turn back now?" his trainer asked carefully. Rhydon stood a bit straighter then shook his head again. Despite the somewhat worrying result of this more in depth exploration the three Poison type pokemon, and one former member of that type, resumed trying to expand the group's knowledge of creating a cure to being poisoned. Rhydon in particular was still at the point of figuring out how to make the anti-toxin with his body.

Alexa watched this while making some notes, paying particular attention to Rhydon over the other pokemon. Charizard easily learned the developed move, and a reluctant Bellossom agreed to be the victim to test if it worked properly. Rhydon on the other hand had great difficulty with his own task as so far the group had made the light blue substance using the largest portion of their toxic coatings. His own toxin seemed to make up much of the inside of his body now, and it was not taking well to being altered. "Rhydon, I don't think it's going to work," Alexa told the pokemon after a particularly strained effort caused his plates to buckle slightly shifting his torso beyond where he could usually move it.

With a sigh the former Ground type nodded and righted his upper body before he started to move towards the pool, with Kingler and Charizard soon following. "Right, let's get you three clean then. I think we've done enough with the Poison type for a while, right?" their trainer asked with a hint of desperation while she moved to get the safety suit she would need. The team agreed, with Bellossom giving off a loud spark and beginning to rant at the spots of poison killed grass dotting the area they had worked for the past few days. 


	18. Mundane Clay

\- Mundane Clay -

Alexa gathered the team once more in the lab now that all her pokemon had returned to their natural types, or at least the ones who weren't staying transformed permanently. This meant that Bellossom had somewhat jokingly taken up the spot away from the others where Heracross had stood the past month. On a cleared spot of the desk was a large block of brown earthy material that had been partially unwrapped from a thick paper covering.

"Okay everybody, this is Mundane Clay," she told them pointing at the block. "It has a bit of a story to go with it." Her pokemon began to settled in for one of their trainers longer explanations.

"Evolution stones can form by leaching energies out of nearby rocks. This causes those rocks to become drained of elemental energies. When water breaks these drained rocks down, like if a river started flowing through an area, it carries the particles downstream. As it does this the particles can get built up in an area as clay, forming deposits of this stuff. When prospectors find some of this stuff they can tell that a big deposit of evolution stones is upstream from the location, and then go from there to find the valuable stones," the young researcher told her team holding up several pieces from the notes on the desk as she progressed.

"It is usually not collected itself, because the transformation it causes isn't seen as being very useful. When you rub it into a pokemon's skin their primary type changes to Normal." At this most of the team looked at the clay confused, however Heracross eagerly nodded at the statement. "Yeah, this was the first thing I found that the notes specifically said would always change the pokemon's primary type," she told the beetle. "It lasts about a week though."

Heracross looked thoughtful at the length given for the change. He gave a questioning click towards the two pokemon that had recently experienced the Bug type for themselves. Rhydon pointed to his back and gave a bit of a speech, and Charizard gave a long serious discussion of his own. Bellossom chimed in at this point pointing out the way the three were talking. "I guess last time we tried this didn't help much did it?" Alexa asked, getting a nod from the Grass type to show she interpreted the point properly.

Heracross looked at the rest of the team seriously before turning to his trainer and nodding strongly. "It will be only a week this time, and unless something unexpected happens this should change your Bug type," she tried to reassure him as she removed a chunk of the soft material from the block. The beetle moved closer and held out an arm for his trainer to start with.

As the brown material rubbed across the hard shell it at first seemed to stick to it in strands. However, soon after it became clear that the outer shell was breaking apart into a coat of fine fibers. This change was soon outpacing Alexa's rubbing to move down to his main body, soon covering the pokemon in short blue fur. After the fur coated an area the general shape began to change. In the case of the arm where the material was first applied this started with the elbow becoming more fluid in motion and the shell changing to skin while the large bumps changed to horn or claw like protrusions. Despite the loss of exoskeleton the limb held its shape, and as the trainer stopped rubbing more in she was visibly moving skin and muscle around a bone. The most notable change of this first part happened to the end of the limb as the beetle's clawed hand softened and split into a pliable version with two additional claws, and soon these grew outward into four mobile fingers.

The next stage of the change happened rapidly, with the main body of the former Bug type altering into much more visible sections while also changing to a mammalian appearance. The softer nature of the new body was seen as Heracross tipped forward in a bend of his torso that he obviously did not intend, and seemed to be the result of it suddenly becoming a possible action for him. His other arm quickly changed to match the first, and his legs also shifted in much the same way ending with each having four short toes. A short tail extended from the base of the new spine the pokemon had apparently gained, with a pair of small spikes growing off the very end.

Finally the greatest change was to the pokemon's head, with the overall structure of it becoming triangular as the mouth and newly forming nose pushed forward and in doing so moved the horn to be in the center of the face instead of extending more from the top. A noticeable neck was now connecting the head to the body, completely replacing the rounded form that was previously there. His antenna retreated into the fur above his eyes while a short set of whiskers grew outward from his new nose. His horn in addition to changing from chitin to keratin shrank slightly, but also seemed to become a bit stronger, and had its end simplify to be a long central portion that split near the end into four blunt points.

This was possibly the most extreme change yet, even taking into account the recent changes of his teammates into Bug types. The large fuzzy mammal looked over his body in wonder, poking at the bone under his pliable skin with a finger before moving to try grabbing at it with the digit. Strong muscles were clearly visible in his limbs and he let out a proud squeak as he realized what he was seeing.

"Wow," Alexa managed with some bits of clay still clinging to her hands. "That, that was a lot bigger than I expected. Are you alright?" The former beetle nodded happily, then seemed to get distracted by the sensation of how far he could now move his head. With a chitter he then attempted to mimic Rhydon's agility routine from the Ground/Rock type's earlier transformations, only to send himself sprawling as he became unbalanced during the unfamiliar movements.

Rhydon took this opportunity to move closer and help the pokemon up, spending a moment to feel the new fur in the process. Carefully the reptile helped the changed pokemon to move through the stretches as best the new Normal/Fighting type could. "So, what do you think?" Alexa asked as the pokemon finished a repetition of the movements on his own. Heracross gave a happy squeak at this, and then launched into questioning Rhydon about his new body. Rhydon for his part looked as if he regretted helping as Charizard laughed at the antics and moved up to provide a better example of fingers. 


	19. Musings

\- Musings -

In one way the training that occurred next was a repeat of the earlier work to help the team's Fighting type. There were still cracked rocks and sparing partners working together to get the pokemon used to the change in typing. The sight of the altered pokemon bending nearly in half by quickly digging his fingers into the dirt in order to dodge a number of incoming rocks was not typical at all of the former Bug type. This move by Heracross ended with him landing on his feet now to the side of Rhydon, who was charging just behind the short barrage of stones.

For his own part Rhydon was more used to the Fighting type countering this strategy by taking to the air briefly to go above his charge, and as a consequence was guarding his back better than his sides. Despite this he still was able to avoid the followup kick as the transformed pokemon sprung forward a bit too slowly, although with more power than an insect's limbs could easily provide.

Alexa watched her pokemon with an interested expression that did not quite reach happiness. "I'm glad he's enjoying this, but part of me is worried about how much," she told Charizard as the Fire type rested from his own turn. The large reptile was currently sporting two large fins instead of wings, and simply looked at his trainer blankly. "I don't mean like that, I just," the trainer stopped and let out a sigh. "Even when you were a Bug type it wasn't that big of a change, or at least it didn't seem like it." She looked down at her own arm, feeling the bones under her skin with her other hand. "I felt when it shifted, when his arm went from having a shell to having a bone. I can't imagine what that is like."

Heracross smacked his tail into a rock as he dove behind it, the new appendage forgotten in an evasion attempt, and let out a loud squeak of pain. Rhydon stumbled at the sound crashing into the rock and sending both pokemon tumbling to the ground. After a moment the two managed to help each other up, and the long tailed reptile began to discuss having that limb with his teammate.

Charizard looked over the scene and then looked back at his trainer. With a huff he removed her hand from her arm and put it on one of his large fins. After taking a moment to really check the differences caused by his own transformation Alexa replied, "Okay. I guess if you guys are fine with it I should be too." The Fire type then pointed at a bush some distance away and back to the pair of pokemon now discussing tails. "I guess Rhydon has had some rather extreme moments too," she admitted as well, but cast a look at some of the still present marks where Poison type moves had been used.

Bellossom then moved to the pair and motioned to indicate that she wanted a turn. Blue fur shifted as Heracross nodded in response, and for a moment it seemed he would get distracted again with that part of his change. Instead he darted forward as the plant pokemon hid her intended movements with her skirt of leaves and as a result dodged successfully. She immediately replied with a crack of electricity that hit the former Bug easily.

Alexa watched the two altered pokemon face off for a moment and then turned back to Charizard. "It was an entire month of something he didn't like, and I couldn't do anything to fix it. A month of him being almost the same, only with some funny looking lines. Now he looks more like a Nido than his original form, and he's so much happier." She shook her head at the pokemon. "I don't know if I could do something like that."

Rhydon walked up to them at this point and gave a questioning grunt to his fellow lizard. Charizard replied with a series of growls while Alexa waited for the other pokemon to get up to speed on the topic. He moved to watch his trainer as the explanation went on, but did not look to be upset with her. After the Fire/Water pokemon finished explaining to him he moved forward and nodded to his trainer while patting his stomach plates. After she noticed that he was looking towards the plastic pool they had yet to take care of she felt a bit better about her concerns.

They watched in silence for a few minutes as Bellossom and Heracross continued to face off. The new mammal was getting better steadily, dodging out of the way of arcs of electricity and flying leaves while striking back with physical blows when he managed to get close. Bellossom was holding her own easily by obscuring her intent using fairly complex movements, and was getting much faster at changing between her Grass and Electric attacks to keep her target off guard. It was obvious that despite what seemed to be a large improvement in stamina Heracross was still tired from going against so many pokemon in a day.

"Okay, I think I might be overreacting a bit," Alexa admitted seeing how the two transformed pokemon were easily working with their own changes. "We have been doing this for a month, and nobody has been too bad off after changing." Charizard looked at his trainer with a smile while Rhydon nodded strongly. "Please don't say anything to him about this, okay? I don't want him to get upset with the change just because it freaked me out for once." The two pokemon nodded, and then Rhydon picked up the notebook that she had left nearby and handed it to her.

Bellossom and Heracross both stopped soon after as the Fighting type was definitely looking in need of a break. Kingler looked up from her spot by the pond slightly disappointed at not getting a turn yet herself, but quickly went back to trying to produce the altered version of Soak at the sight of a challenging look from the still fairly fresh Grass/Electric type. 


	20. Move It

\- Move It -

Heracross was listening to the others planning their attempts at new moves with much more enjoyment and feedback than he had managed over any of the other projects the team had attempted over the past month. "Alright everyone. It seems we are planning on making these transformations into part of our strategy now?" Alexa asked the gathered pokemon. Charizard nodded rapidly and began to point at several locations making comments. Bellossom gave a nod to agree, but not as strongly as the Fire type. Rhydon gave a low grumble and then joined in with trying to get across which types by pointing. Kingler and Heracross both seemed to be trying to say they were more interested in changes to themselves, with the currently Normal type pokemon wiggling his fingers and bending over to emphases this.

"Right, so two of you want to make other pokemon change, and the rest just want different forms," their trainer clarified. "Changing other pokemon is going to be fine from what I've checked of official battle rules, at least as long as we make sure they only last a short time. I've also already started looking into ways of either making these changes last longer, or of getting more of the materials." She looked over at her Fighting type. "Mundane Clay is actually really easy to get right now, and we can store a good amount of it. So if you really like that form it is going to be an easy option for us to have." Heracross gave a happy squeak at this, and she turned to look at Rhydon. "Crystal Syrup on the other hand is really expensive, and it is a powerful medicine so I don't like the idea of using a lot of it for this kind of thing. Dad said he was looking for other options if you want to be in that shape again." The Ground/Rock type nodded thoughtfully.

"I've also looked into the cleaning supplies, and I think we might be able to do something about reversing the Toxin Contagion on our own," she said getting out a small stack of papers. "One of the cleaning products is fairly close to the anti-toxin in makeup, and it is known to cure poisonings. So I'm thinking we could try and adapt that poison curing move Kingler and Bellossom made to reversing the change too." The mentioned pokemon looked interested in the idea and began to discuss it quietly amongst themselves.

"So, with those details out of the way we can start thinking about actually battling with this stuff," she continued mostly to Charizard. "Changing their type and shape is going to trip an opponent up some, but we can't count on just that." The Fire/Flying pokemon nodded accepting the logic. "Do you have any plans so far?" At the question Charizard quickly took off to fly above an area downwind of the team.

After a moment of considering the ground and looking to the team he began to hover over a spot with a look of intense concentration. Then he began to flap slower for a moment, until his wings gave off a familiar glow and a short rain of blueish grey powder fell to the ground beneath him. Smiling at the result the reptile flew back to the group and gave an exaggerated bow. Alexa put her hand over her face. "Yeah, I can see how making your opponents into Bug types would work," she grudgingly admitted. "We'd probably have issues with the first person we meet who is scared of them, but that would still be a solid tactic. How long have you been able to manage that?" Charizard shook his hand in a way that told his trainer he wasn't actually sure it would have worked.

"Anyone else have progress on that front they haven't told me about yet?" she asked the group, getting an unsure nod from Rhydon. "Ok, can you demonstrate?" The Ground/Rock type looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. Then he faced towards Charizard and began to prepare an attack in his throat. The Fire type chuckled and braced for the incoming move. A small glob of toxic goo flung forward onto the winged reptile.

Charizard's color immediately shifted to the same purple colors it had when using the toxin itself. Unlike before his weight did not noticeably increase, and the poison that built up on his claws and teeth was much thinner. His tailflame remained lit, but the color changed to a toxic purple that seemed to give off a small but dense cloud of poison clinging to the darker flames. The newly transformed pokemon looked over his body with a laugh. He gave a questioning rumble to Rhydon as he moved to be on the downwind side of the team.

"So, that's at least two we have available all the time now," Alexa said looking a bit shocked at the result. "How about you Kingler, any luck with Charizard's version of Soak?" The crab pokemon clicked her claw thoughtfully, then waggled it back and forth. "Alright, that one is still a work in progress." Rhydon raised his claw up at this. "Unless someone else has managed that one without being Water type?" The Ground/Rock type didn't confirm, instead pointing at Kingler and then himself. "You can't right now, but want to try and do it?" He nodded.

Alexa looked over the group for a moment. "Any other ideas on that front?" she asked the team. Bellossom nodded and gave off some sparks. She then motioned to the pond, then to Charizard and his temporary Poison type. "You want to try and make an Electric type move? Do you have what you need to work that out?" Bellossom gave a thoughtful nod, and proceeded to shift her skirt of leaves against itself producing a short aura of sparks. "Okay, when you have something let me know so we can work out how to test it safely." The plant pokemon nodded happily.

Charizard then gave a brief puff of purple smoke, and then looked at the small cloud of toxic gas that lingered with some annoyance. "I'm guessing what you meant was trying to make a Fire type move," Alexa joked with the reptile, who chuckled and nodded. "Sounds good, and if you keep going around with the Water type it even is an advantage." The Fire type looked at his trainer with a surprised expression that quickly turned thoughtful.

"So I guess what we've decided is that our theme is changing types. Maybe we should get some of dad's pokemon to help. Porygon should have some advice on changing at will," the trainer proposed. Heracross gave her an interested look at this and pointed at Charizard before miming spitting at him. "Yeah, we can ask if it's willing to be targets for testing these moves too," Alexa responded after a moment of deciphering the mammal's meaning. "It should be interesting to see how it handles it," she said with an amused smile earning a round of chuckles from her team.

The Lickitung looked over the group somewhat dubiously. Alexa wasn't sure what to make of the pokemon's mood, having received her for the day instead of Porygon to help out with developing new moves. Her father had collected a large number of willing pokemon volunteers for testing changes in type, and quite a few had already helped him personally while Alexa had focused on working with her own team. Lickitung was one that had not had a chance yet, and she had apparently been getting antsy about actually going through with a change. Despite this she seemed to be quite nervous with the actual reality of having a new type. Charizard was probably not helping with that unease by showing off his swimming prowess in his own changed form.

"Alright Lickitung, we are going to be trying out a few moves that will change your type," Alexa started to explain. "Your body will also be altered a bit by these." The pink pokemon nodded slowly in response, its large dangling tongue strangely still as it did so. "Alright, we are starting with a variant on Soak we have been using." Charizard suddenly surged out of the water, sending a glowing wave crashing over the Normal type just short of hitting his trainer.

Lickitung emerged from the water with her entire body changed to a blue color, her markings taking on a slightly lighter shade. Her tongue was now notably dripping a thin stream of water, and her arms were altered in flatter and wider flippers. The changed pokemon turned to Alexa's Fire type angrily and began to rant at him. "Right, his version usually lasts about half an hour. If you are still up for it, the next move will be Poison typed," the trainer says with a sigh as the previously normal typed pokemon finally notices the changes to her shape and begins to interrogate the finned lizard about them.

Alexa turned to where Kingler and Rhydon were working on getting the altered Soak move working for the crab pokemon. Like Charizard the Ground type was currently using the Clearwater Geode to be a Water type. The two pokemon were sending blasts of water towards the pond working at producing the transformative move. If the glow present in both pokemon's attempts was any indication then seemed that she had finally managed to get the trick to creating the effect.

Bellossom and Heracross were continuing to train in use of their longer term changes of type. The plant pokemon had advanced to trying to mix Electric and Grass type moves more directly by either jumping the arcs across slowly floating leaves and petals, or by creating charged leaves that flew more quickly and gave a shocking result. Heracross was countering with Fire Punches learned from his previous transformation. The currently Normal/Fighting type pokemon was rapidly getting used to the larger range of motion offered by becoming a mammal, and was even managing to reproduce some tactics that he had previously used his wings to accomplish.

The next half hour was mostly spent with those two training on their own while the four Water types present went over the altered form of Soak in more detail. Then another ten minutes were spent in much the same fashion after a successful attempt by Kingler to preform the move on Lickitung. After the second round of being transformed in this manner the large tongue'd pokemon seemed to have a better handle on the goal of the current testing. "Okay, next is seeing who can manage the move version of Toxin Contagion," the trainer said looking over her team, noticing that Charizard and Rhydon were still aquatic. "Well, maybe waiting for the two of you to change back first."

Rhydon shook his head in the negative at this and gave a wide smile on his muddy hide. Giving a short grumble to Lickitung, who nodded in response, he then proceeded to repeat the transformative toxic spit move on the other pokemon. The Normal type pokemon took being hit by the move with some humor this time, looking with interest as the blob sank into her thick hide. Once again the pokemon's coloration was the first to change, this time with her pink being replaced with a dark green and her lighter areas becoming a lighter shade. Her small claws lengthened slightly into hazardous poison coated points. Small hairs seemed to have sprouted along the whole of her tail that secreted a thin layer of toxin giving it a rough texture. The pokemon's large tongue changed to a purple color, or at minimum gained a thick coat of poison in that color.

Lickitung seemed somewhat nervous as she tried touching her altered tongue. The new Poison type looked surprised when she was able to do so without any issue. "You don't need to worry about that," Alexa said a bit less sure than she intended. "These changes don't seem to cause any new things that are dangerous to the pokemon themselves." The volunteer nodded still somewhat uneasy, then moved on to checking the alterations to her tail.

"Now, we have two options for what to do next," the trainer said after letting the pokemon spend a couple minutes exploring her changes. "The first is we can have the rest of the team try to figure out how to do this move." Charizard gave a nod at this, but most of the team was only partially interested. "The other option is our plan for reversing the more extreme version of this change." Lickitung looked at her confused at that option. "To change back from using this stuff after its sat for a while takes a good cleaning. We think we might have a move that would do that instead." Alexa looked somewhat nervously at the currently poisonous pokemon before continuing. "Dad said that he wanted you to have a longer transformation going on when we sent you back, and I figured even if we succeed it would give you some experience for what he's after." Lickitung nodded with an amused expression at the admission and twisted her arm to hold one of her lengthened claws upwards.

"Right, then let's start with the first part. Kingler, can you cure poison now, or will we need to turn you into a Poison type yourself first?" Alexa asked the crab pokemon. Kingler gathered a bit of water in her large claw and changed it so the liquid thickened a bit and began to glow. Charizard nodded at the result and deliberately ran his hand down Lickitung's poison covered tail, surprising the altered pokemon. The Fire type grunted as the toxic material took effect and then nodded to the pure Water type to make their attempt. Seeing the general idea Lickitung gladly joined in the testing by poisoning whichever member of the team was next to have the restorative move attempted on them.

As the duration of the Toxin Contagion move ran out Lickitung's body returned to normal with surprisingly little consequence despite both her tail and tongue being coated in poison during the change. This coat of toxic material simply slid off neatly as her colors returned to normal, much to Alexa's relief as she noticed the potential issue just before the changes ended. "Okay, next we will need to get some Contagion that has been resting a bit," the trainer said motioning for them to move to the lab.

The next stage of utility move development required a test subject, and with the borrowed Lickitung willing to help it looked like it was going to progress well. "Do you have any idea what dad wants you to do that needs you to be transformed?" Alexa asked the pokemon as the got out the Toxin Contagion and its small dropper. The Normal type shook her head before moving forward, she seemed rather eager to continue despite her initial misgivings. "Ok, I'll have to ask him later."

The small drop of Poison type material sank into the thick pink flesh easily, and immediately sent toxic green outward to replace its previous color. The changes to the pokemon's color and tail were close to the same, with the only difference being a small series of spikes trailing down the center of the now fuzzy appendage. Additionally the small circles on her knees were replaced by a pair of short rounded spikes, and two lines of small backwards angled spines grew along the now Poison typed pokemon's back that arced to meet up with the single row along her tail. The most dramatic change was to her tongue, with the massive feature melting to become simply a mass of controllable toxic goo. Lickitung stared at the change to her most notable body part, poking at its now partially liquefied form and slopping it over her body as she explored just how much she could now move the mass of goop.

"Okay, there seems to be a bit of a theme with this stuff," Alexa commented as Lickitung pulled the blob that had been her tongue into her mouth for the time being. "So, are you ready to see if we can turn you back?" The Poison type looked over her body's changes for a moment before nodding. The two of them emerged from the lab to where the rest of the team had remained to discuss how to go forward with the current project. They had also apparently snuck a number of bowls out of the lab and were in the process of going over a variety of light blue liquids held in them.

"Did you at least make some progress?" the trainer asked looking over the appropriated containers with a dark expression. Bellossom nodded happily while Charizard did so with a smug smile. Kingler and Rhydon at least had embarrassed expressions at being caught, and Heracross joined the two for a moment before getting distracted by the feeling of his mouth making a frown. "You will be helping to clean those properly later. We are working with dangerous materials here." The group agreed with a set of apologetic sounds, although Heracross now moved off to inspect his face in the reflection of the pond.

Lickitung engaged in a brief conversation with the team as they explained the substances they had made. This quickly changed into a discussion of her altered body focusing on her no longer solid tongue. Rhydon in particular continued this line of questioning even after the rest of the team moved on to explaining to their trainer what they were thinking of as a liquids were separated into three groups, the first was simply the anti-toxin in a few variations, the second was the move to cure poisonings, and the third was an attempt to make a stronger substance. The first and last group were actually a bit toxic themselves when a pokemon that did not need them was exposed, and the team had used the second group for some additional refinement of the cure in response to that discovery.

"Right, next time you are all waiting for me to be there before trying anything out," Alexa angrily told her pokemon as they finished. "We'll start with the cure group, and then move onto the anti-toxin, and if neither of those work we might try this last one." With a sigh as they gave apologies to her she continued, "So, are you up for letting them work on this with you, Lickitung?"

The transformed pokemon nodded and then moved aside where Kingler was standing a short distance apart from the group. After spending a moment to prepare she gave a bubbly rumble to show she was ready. Kingler carefully sent a splash of liquid at the larger pokemon. They hit the pokemon and sank into her body with no immediate effect. After a moment Lickitung gave a grumble and motioned for the crab pokemon to try again. This time Alexa was able to see the slight color change that matched what had occurred during her own work at cleaning off the pokemon that had tried the Contagion. "I think that is at least working as a cleaning product," she informed the group. "Although the question there is if you can make enough to handle a full cleaning."

Kingler spend a moment just looking between the mass of the currently green pokemon and the large empty bottles of cleaning agent next to the plastic pool. She then turned to her trainer with a somewhat worried expression and shook her body no. "Yeah, that takes a lot to do. Let's see what the next one does, okay?" Lickitung nodded rubbing the small cleaned patch and turning to present an untouched part of her belly. The anti-toxin had a slightly larger effect on the Poison typing, but was still working as little more than a cleaner. Next they moved to the small number of variants, which when tested revealed that the strongest of those had a better effect for the amount used. By the end of this testing the long tongued pokemon had changed to a polka dotted look from all the small patches that had been partially cleaned in the process.

Looking at these patches thoughtfully Lickitung brought out the mass of toxin her tongue had become to wipe over them, with the minor color changes vanishing as it passes. "Oh. I guess that's something you can do when you're like that," Alexa said staring at the small change. The rest of the team looked at the action in interest, unnerving the Poison type with how her simple action produced such a response. "Right, I think trying the more potent stuff should be safe enough. Are you ready?"

After getting a nod from her target Kingler produced a good sized portion of the stronger variant and then carefully flung the liquid. This time the effects were rapid, with the green color instantly chased away by Lickitung's original pink. The spikes and fur sank into her body while the accompanying poison melted off easily. Her tongue notably solidified in front of the group, the mass of goo reforming into flesh quickly and resulting in a healthy pink color free of any residue.

"Congratulations," Alexa said amazed at the quick result. "I think with that we can consider keeping some Toxin Contagion on hand when we get back to traveling." At this the borrowed pokemon looked up from inspecting her restored form to gave a confused look to the trainer. She soon shifted to staring incredulously at how excited the entire team seemed to be at this idea. "Thank you for your help," the trainer told her. "If you want we can get you changed back into that form for my dad now." Giving it a moments thought, during which she once more looked over the happy team, she nodded and began to walk back to the lab grumbling with some confusion.

Alexa looked over Arbok, who was in turn looking over the changed form of Heracross with interest. The Poison type was present because of a suggestion made by her father the day before while she had been dropping off Lickitung. The Professor had been quite excited about the success of the move to restore a pokemon from being changed into the Poison type, but he had also wondered what would happen to a pokemon that was naturally of that type. He had given an example of a move that temporarily removed the user's Flying type and asked if they could test to see if this new technique worked in that way. Alexa was personally a bit wary of the specific volunteer he had gotten to test this possibility, as the snake pokemon in front of her was a pure Poison type and did not have another to fall back on like most Flying pokemon.

"Ok, just so you know, I have no idea what will happen to you if this works. Dad said this kind of thing has happened to pokemon before, not having any type at all that is, and it generally isn't harmful," The trainer explained to the apparently quite eager serpent, who simply bobbed his head and gave a hissing question to the currently Normal type pokemon. Heracross responded with a brief series of squeaks, before turning to his trainer and grabbing a few strands of fur. "No, it isn't going to make him Normal typed like you, it would make him not have one. Like most humans," she explained getting an even more interested look from Arbok.

The Poison type streaked forward to lay in front of Kingler, who looked up nervously at her trainer. Charizard gave a chuckle from the pond as he and Rhydon worked with Bellossom to get used to being vulnerable to her types while transformed into another type. "It's okay to go ahead," Alexa told the Water type while keeping an eye on the enthusiastic pokemon. With a bit of trepidation the crab pokemon sent a small amount of the strong anti-toxin based liquid at the serpent.

The first change to Arbok was his purple coloration draining to a light brown, with the red portions of his hood shifting to a dark green and the yellow within becoming a lighter shade of green. The next change was a general thickening of his body, shifting to be slightly more muscular and making the hood slightly less apparent as it remained the same size. Finally the pokemon seemed be moving slightly differently, with the effect best demonstrated as he began to try out his changed form and proceeded to travel in a slower, more solid manner. After seeing that the changes had completed he gave a grin to both trainer and pokemon and moved towards his pokeball, that he had brought with him outside the lab.

"Wait, you're going to just rest now?" Alexa asked Arbok confused. "I was thinking we would wait to make sure you changed back after a bit." The snake pokemon looked at the trainer for a moment with a considering expression, before managing to shrug with his hood and continuing to the small sphere. Once he got close enough he happily tapped the button on the ball and prepared for it to collect him, only for the small item to send out an error tone shocking the pokemon. He quickly repeated the attempt to the same result, then grabbed the ball and rapidly brought it to the trainer with a sad expression on his face.

Alexa took the pokeball and spent a moment inspecting it, including checking the indicator light on the button for the specific error. "Huh, it's giving the 'attempted to use on human' error." Seeing the horrified look on the serpent's face she continued, "It still registers as yours from what I can tell. I think this might be because you don't have a type." Arbok still looked worried and Alexa heard Kingler give a click that meant to continue explaining. "Human's can't be caught because their energy is too tightly contained. Pokeballs need to be able to split you apart into energy to take you inside, so if your energy is too hard to split then they don't work on you. That's why you can't catch humans with them."

Arbok looked slightly better after the explanation. "Let's wait and make sure you turn back, then we can try again. Okay?" she asked the typeless pokemon. With a sad nod he agreed and joined the trainer in watching her temporary Water types to make sure they were doing okay against Bellossom. Charizard had easily adapted to the situation as the Grass type was countered by his Fire type to some extent, while the risk of Electric type attacks was a shared problem between his two main secondary types. Rhydon similarly still had a benefit against one of the types still and a shared weakness against the other one, but he was having a bit more issues with how to fight while in the water himself.

The two pokemon both refreshed their transformation while their trainer waited with the borrowed pokemon. In the end it was around twenty minutes before Arbok returned to normal. His body thinning back to its original scale while his colors returned to the darker purple showing his restored Poison type. Finally as soon as the changes were completely removed the serpent quickly pressed the button of his pokeball again and vanished into the small sphere. "Alright, I don't think we can use that one in a battle. Pokeballs are too important to risk not being able to use them," Alexa said getting a series of nervous agreements from her team.

"Still, we've made some great progress here. So, what next?" she asked them carrying the pokeball back towards the lab. "Do we try to make another move, or do you guys think we should go for something new?" Heracross gave a squeak and pointed at the lab, earning interested looks from the group. "Something new?" He nodded and gave a short chittering speech to the team while moving his hands through his fur and pointing back towards the pond. "New stuff gives us new ideas?" Alexa asked to make sure she was on the same page, earning a rapid nod from the former beetle. "Alright then. Let's see what we have." 


	21. Full Changeover

\- Full Changeover -

Charizard standing by a pond with a wide smile was the typical sign that he had something planned, even before he acquired a way to become the Water type. "Okay, so what is this idea for something new you've got?" Alexa asked the Fire/Flying type alongside the rest of the team joined her just beyond the typical range of his Soak move. The reptile nodded and picked up a bottle of water from the Clearwater Geode. He took a quick drink and dove into the water after completing the change that now seemed almost natural to the team.

Rhydon asked a grumbling question and pointed at Heracross to let his trainer know he was wondering if the goal was to transform their currently Normal type teammate. The aquatic reptile shook his head in response and then dove under the surface. The next moment a blue glow surged upwards out of the water into the air, and the team could just see Charizard smiling beneath the move before it crashed back down on top of him. They looked on in shock as the pokemon returned to the surface now under the effect of his own move. Overall the changes that came with losing his Fire type were minor, with the flames on his fin replaced with a close layer of shaped water that could be seen sticking up out of the pond and his orange color had been replaced with a dark blue. Now a pure Water type the reptile laughed at the exasperated faces of his team.

"Well, I guess learning that you can manage to use those moves on yourself is neat," Alexa told him as he climbed out of the pond and sent a smile at Kingler. He then turned back to his trainer and shook his head, walking a short ways past the group. Several members of the team gave confused questions to the finned pokemon, who simply held up a claw until the rest of the team quieted down. Charizard braced himself and proceeded to spit a small blob of purple goop into the air. His trainer gave a slight groan at seeing that the next part was his newly completed attempt at creating Toxin Contagion while not a Poison type himself, only to have it turn into gasp as he moved forward to catch the material on his back.

Once again the pokemon's move successfully worked on his own body. The changes began with the blue he had just gained being replaced by a purple the same shade, while his stripes and fins changed from their now typical colors to a surprising off white color. His large fins gained a series of poison producing spikes to go along with the bit of purple goo that was now coating his claws. Down his back rows of short flattened spines grew outward, and others grew along the edge of his tailfin leaking thin streams of toxin into the tightly clinging water.

Alexa stared at her pokemon, who had in a short time changed from a Fire/Flying type to a Water/Poison type. The playful smile on his face seemed to only highlight how this change almost seemed to fit the playful and prankster nature of her pokemon. Turning to see what her team thought she found herself meeting what might be a match for her expression on Bellossom's face as the plant pokemon mirrored her movement. This seemed to set off the fish-like prankster who began to loudly laugh rolling on the ground.

"Ok, alright," Alexa said to the pokemon as he continued. "You made quite an impression there." The former Fire type finally stopped to nod, only to see the somewhat angry look on his trainer's face. "You also just used three different transformations one after another." Standing up the Water/Poison type looked on nervously at her serious tone. "So we are going to wait and see how you end up turning back, and that assumes that this didn't make it so you can't turn back."

Charizard looked at his trainer's face carefully before nodding with a wide smile. "We don't know that you will," she said strongly and could only sigh when the finned pokemon gave a wave of his tail that she took to mean that he thought they did. "In that case no swimming until we know you won't turn all the way back early. After all that last change probably won't last as long as the others, and it might just undo them all when it ends," she countered knowing he had just barely learned to make the transformative toxin. This made the playful pokemon dramatically mime being stabbed before he nodded and went to sit by the pond's edge.

After around fifteen minutes the Poison type change ended, with the new spines retracting and altered colors returning to the dark blue of a pure Water type pokemon. Charizard grumbled a bit at how Alexa still would not allow him into the water. With so much time passing the rest of the team moved on to practicing and discussing the various moves, with many of them speaking with Heracross while going over the possibility of who to use them on. After nearly half an hour from when he lost the Poison type Charizard's Fire type returned, with his color once more taking on its natural orange and the green flames replacing the water that had been at the edge of his tailfin.

"Okay, I think I see how this is going, although you are still going to be waiting this out," Alexa said to the once more Fire typed pokemon. "It looks like whenever one of these changes happens it works on however you are when it was used on you. So Charizard transformed to have the Poison type differently when he was already changed into a Water type than when he wasn't one. After that the most recent change works like normal, so in this case he turned back after just a bit because he isn't that great at the Poison type move yet." There were nods of understanding, particularly from Heracross who was looking over his arm thoughtfully. "But, whatever other changes you have get put on pause. So when you turn back you become as you were when you transformed and need to undo any other changes in order." Bellossom looked between the former Bug type and her trainer as a smile spread over her face. "So in effect you have to go through the duration or reversal of each of the changes in reverse order to get back to normal." Looking at the many interested faces Alexa let out a sigh. "So while we can't do something like this for things like Capacitance that have issues based on how long they effect you, I think I can ask dad about trying other changes while transformed now."

A short cheer went up from the group and a happy Fire/Water type started to toe into the water. "No Charizard, this isn't just about safety," his trainer said stopping him in his tracks, "You did something unsafe, so you have to wait it out to make sure, but you also did something that you knew we weren't supposed to try, so I think you are going to stay out of the water the rest of the day." With a partly smiling grumble the reptile moved back away from the pond and sat between his team as they excitedly discussed the new opportunity. Heracross twitched his nose and nodded at the Fire type, earning a wider smile from the prankster. 


	22. Loam Berry

\- Loam Berry -

Alexa returned to the main area from her father's section of the lab with a small basket holding some berries and papers. "Rhydon, I've got some good news," she told the large reptile as the rest of the group looked over what she was carrying. "Dad found something that might work for giving you the Grass type that's a lot easier to get." Rhydon cast a curious glance to the two clusters of small brown berries the trainer was now getting out to rest on the desk.

Pulling one of the small fruit off the rest of the cluster she held it so the group could see it in detail. "These are Loam Berries, one of those rare berries that only grow in places where Legendary Grass types live," the trainer said before blinking at what she had said. "Which really makes them even rarer since you could probably list the berries that don't grow in those places in less time than all the ones you could find." Bellossom giggled at the statement while Charizard rubbed his jaw looking over the berry. "Anyway, when a Ground type eats them they gain the Grass type. Small patches of soil form on their bodies and the berry plant grows from it to cover their body. It's a lot like a set of vines that drape over the pokemon from what I've seen." She took a small printout in the basket out for him to see. Rhydon carefully took the paper to look over the pictures accompanying the text.

Bellossom gave a chirp and pointed between the berry and herself, then moved to point at Charizard and Kingler. "Oh, well for pokemon that aren't Ground type it gives them the Ground type. It still makes the pokemon change to have patches of soil that is good for growing berries in, and it is supposed to replace any secondary types," Alexa informed them. "Each berry you eat makes the transformation last a day. It works like the Geode for the duration, so eating another just makes it last another day." Rhydon started to pass the paper on to Bellossom, only for the plant pokemon to wave it off. Charizard gave an interested huff and took the page instead, looking it over a moment before setting it in front of Kingler. Heracross scampered up to look at the changes.

The image showed an Onix whose body appeared more like a series of plant pots than boulders with a number of vine like plants growing out of them around its body. The plant covering was thicker close to the rock snake's head compared to its tail, which appeared to have become small planters for seedlings. Rhydon gave a considering rumble while looking at the berries, while Bellossom looked over to where the paper was set and shook her head at the results. Charizard and Kingler both were looking over the changes under the plant covering and discussing them. Heracross joined Bellossom in declining after seeing the prior result.

"Well, want to see if this works out?" Alexa asked her Ground type. Rhydon stepped forward and nodded, carefully taking the berry from his trainer. The small brown fruit was carefully eaten with the Ground type nodding happily at the taste. As his head bobbed the plates along the back grew to meet each other, notably circling around the back of his head. The end result being a large bowl that quickly sprouted the same plants seen in the picture. More of these emerged from patches along the rest of his body haphazardly, with most of the growing plants sprouting from his back. Unlike the changes to his head and the Onix these did not seem to be forming any notable edges around the soft dirt. Soon he had a large bushy plant mostly growing from his head and back that covered most of those parts of his body.

Rhydon looked over the changes as best he could, getting the most success by moving the plants themselves around to enter his line of sight. The rest of the team watched as he easily made the vine like plants move around at will. With a slight grumble he poked at the plants and the soil that they had grown out of that now gave his body a patchy look. "Well, what do you think?" Alexa asked after he stopped his examinations. The Ground type shrugged, not seeming as pleased as the trainer had hoped with the result. "Well, it was something to try at least," she said somewhat disappointed. Charizard gave a nod at this and walked up to the berries. "Okay, go ahead," the trainer told the Fire type with a touch of amusement. Rhydon gave a deep chuckle that shook his new leaves as the other lizard carefully plucked one from its bunch.

Charizard looked more unsure of the taste as he thoughtfully chewed. His wings folded against his back and melded with it while extending around to connect to each other converting his back into a large bowl, with the blue that had been on them changing to a brown color that started a short distance below the edge. New spikes grew backward from his shoulders and a short series of spines grew from the edge of the new pot down his tail. The part of his back inside the surrounded area expanded outward slightly and converted into a large thick area of dirt. The now wingless reptile turned to look at the changes and seemed to wait a moment for more to happen.

Kingler gave an interested click at the results, moving closer to better see the new ridge replacing his wings. Charizard gave a chuckle and began to speak with the crab pokemon, only to give a short roar of surprise as Bellossom jumped onto his back. The still Fire type pokemon looked backwards again and caught sight of the plant pokemon digging her feet into the soil slightly with a smug expression. He gave a huff and waved his angry trainer off as he caught sight of her glaring at the Grass/Electric type. "You are okay, right?" Alexa still asked the new Ground type as Bellossom looked at her surprised at the anger in her voice. Charizard nodded easily and reached back to pick up his teammate, who gave a squeak as she found the dirt she had dug into move away as he lifted her out.

"Alright, that will last a day for both of you. Rhydon might end up growing some more of the berries before he changes back, but that will be a close thing," the trainer said still holding her natural Grass type's gaze as she dangled in Charizard's grip. With a sigh Bellossom gave an apologetic chirp to the Fire type who then instead of setting her on the floor returned her to the potted area of his back.

Rhydon's Vine Whip and Razor Leaf attempts with his new potted plant Grass type form were noticeably slower that with the previous topiary version. The large reptile was somewhat unhappy with this development, although he was looking thoughtfully at the small berries ripening along the plant growing from his back. Bellossom was engaging the new Grass type in a discussion on these differences from Charizard's back while the Fire/Ground pokemon joined in to ask advice on using his current Ground type.

Alexa simply shook her head in amusement at the previously winged pokemon's decision to allow the Grass/Electric type to stay inside his back. She had made sure the plant pokemon wasn't hurting him by digging into dirt portion of the bowl that was currently his back, but otherwise had left it to the two of them. Heracross was uninterested in trying out this transformation, despite how close he was to becoming a Bug type again. Kingler was looking over the two newly transformed pokemon with some interest.

"So, do you want to try it?" Alexa asked the crab pokemon after Charizard managed to cause a short quaking of the ground. Kingler looked over to the Fire type, who was still carrying a laughing Grass type who was apparently making fun of the weak move. The Water type considered for a moment before turning to shake her body at her trainer. She then thumped her larger claw on the ground while pointing from her spikes to it with her other claw. "You want the Frozen Flame back?" Kingler nodded and pointed between Bellossom and Heracross. "Okay, I guess it would be alright for you to be transformed like that even if you keep testing things," Alexa told the pokemon after spending a moment to consider the idea.

They then turned at the crackling sound of Bellossom sending a spark at her ride after Charizard gave a particularly rough jump, much to the currently immune pokemon's amusement. Seeing how her electrical abilities weren't working the Grass type got down from her teammate and give an exaggerated huff that was accompanied by deliberate sparks. The large reptile watched her walk off with some amusement before turning to try and smooth out the portion of his back where she had been resting.

At this point Rhydon gave out a disappointed huff of his own and practically stomped back to the rest of the group shaking his head. When they turned to look at him he grabbed one of the vines and sighed, then turned to the trainer and gave a basic set of stretches, holding on ones that did not move very far. "This one doesn't change how much you can move enough?" Alexa asked getting a groaning nod as the temporary Grass type moved a piece of his plants with growing berries in front of him. Checking the progress he looked between the fruit and his trainer before shaking his head. "Not worth how much easier it is to use, huh? I guess that one didn't work out," she replied somewhat disappointed. "I had hoped this would work for you. You did seem to like the Grass type from the change with the Crystal Syrup."

Charizard now walked up to the group and inspected the growing fruit himself. "How about you, what do you think of this?" Alexa asked the Fire type, who gave a thoughtful look at his back, then to the vines on Rhydon's, and then shook his head. "I guess I should have expected it, they did sound too good to be true," she replied with a sigh. "Alright, we'll wait this one out and see what else we find." Both reptiles nodded in reply, and then a click of a claw from Kingler reminded the trainer of the crab pokemon's desire to be a Dragon again. "And I guess later we can see what happens when you're changed while you're already using the Frozen Flame." The Water type nodded happily and explained to the others as they began to walk towards the lab.

The group returned soon after with a much spikier crab pokemon. Rhydon was mostly paying attention to the growth of the berries at this point, and seemed to be using that as a measure of how long before he turned back. "Right, are we going to try anything now, Kingler?" Alexa asked her Dragon type as Charizard moved back out to continue testing out his temporary Ground type. Kingler looked around the area while moving her claw around to get used to the greater strength the form gave her again. She then shook her body saying no, and clacked her claw to emphasize how she was getting used to the changes. Rhydon moved over to sit down a good distance from the various groups of practicing pokemon.

The currently Fire/Ground type enlisted the aid of Heracross and Bellossom to try and get a handle on the moves for his new type that were not focused on simply shaking the ground. Kingler meanwhile moved to the pond, first to reacquaint herself with how she moved in the water, and afterward to confirm that she could still produce the type altering moves that they had been working on. Alexa moved to sit with Rhydon while she took some notes on their various activities.

After a couple of hours a grunt made the trainer look at her Ground/Rock pokemon who pointed out that the berries were fully grown. "Okay then, I guess that lasted long enough for them to finish at least," she happily told the pokemon as she carefully went to work picking the small bunches of fruit. After taking off the third and final cluster the entire mass of plant matter began to rapidly wilt away, falling off the pokemon with no apparent harm to his body. As soon as the last of the plant matter had fallen away the bowl like area on his head and patches that had become dirt along his body returned to their normal shapes as the loose soil itself solidified back into stony plate.

From nearby Charizard noticed that his teammate had returned to normal and moved over to join the two of them in preparation for his own transformation to end. Before he even reached the pair the soil that was making up his back began to shrink inward and return to being simple scales. The Fire type stopped and turned to look back in time for the bowl to begin to split back apart into his wings, with the large circle they had made separating from his back first. Then the altered limbs split back apart at the points of the circle near his tail and head and started to move back to their original position. Finally the reshaping back into wings ended with an involuntary flap that nearly hit the reptile's turned face.

Bellossom gave a laugh at this and motioned for Heracross and Kingler to join the others. The Fire type gave a good natured smile to the plant pokemon before continuing on towards his trainer. Alexa shook her head and finished noting down the way their changes had ended and moved on to looking over the berries collected. "Looks like two clusters of four and one of five, so thirteen berries." She looked up at the team. "Still not interested in this one?" she asked getting negatives from the entire group. "Ah well, they were easy to get, but I guess that doesn't necessarily make them useful. We'll just have to see what else we can find." 


	23. Bugged

\- Bugged -

Heracross stumbled as he emerged from his pokeball, soon followed by a confused click as he looked over his body. "Oh, you turned back already," Alexa said with surprise at the sight of her Fighting type once more in the form of a large beetle. The trainer continued to retrieve the rest of the team just outside the lab while the once more Bug type looked over his body and tested his ability to move. The rest of the team quickly joined their trainer in watching the restored pokemon go over his now rigid body.

Alexa watched as Rhydon walked up from where he'd appeared from his pokeball and began going over the stretches the two had worked on before. The once more exoskeleton supported Bug pokemon looked notably upset over the lack of mobility available in his natural body. Nearby Charizard gave a sigh at the sight, making his trainer look over at the disappointed pokemon. "Did you have something you wanted to do before he turned back?" she asked getting a nod from the Fire type but no further explanation.

Looking over the generally upset looks at the development Alexa considered the situation. "Do you really like that other form that much more than your normal one?" she asked Heracross curiously. He stood still for a moment and looked over his shiny blue arm. Charizard tapped on the pokemon's shell and gave a flap of his own wings, only to get an unsure shrug from the beetle pokemon. Heracross looked around and motioned the others away before opening his shell and taking off the ground with a buzzing sound. The Bug type flew over the group a short distance before landing again in a fairly typical example of his ability to fly.

He proceeded to go through a number of other motions he had typically used in battles since joining Alexa's team. Punches, kicks, and even the rare Bug type moves were attempted rapidly. The trainer could see moments during this display where it seemed her pokemon was nearly hurting himself trying to bend more than he could. "How much further than that can you fly?" she asked him thinking of Rhydon's buzzing flight that had carried large rocks around the field just a short time ago. Heracross replied by pointing up then tapping his arm two times, then pointing to the side and tapping three times. The trainer considered that answer while he moved on to going through the motions of dodging and moving around the area. He demonstrated both of these during this testing, flying up around twice the height of the initial attempt and crossing most of the field with three times the distance of that first hop.

"Do you want to keep using the Mundane Clay to stay transformed?" Alexa finally asked after a few minutes of the Bug/Fighting pokemon trying to figure out his thoughts. The whole team looked at their trainer with some surprise at this offer. Heracross in particular tumbled roughly out of an attempt at running. "Okay, yeah. I'm a bit harsh about making sure you guys really want to stay transformed," she admitted in the face of that response, "but this time at least I can see how Heracross likes his Fighting type a lot more than his Bug type. So given that I'm already letting Kingler try stuff while changed I think it should be okay for him to keep using this stuff too." The beetle pokemon eagerly nodded at this and gave another flying hop back to the entrance of the lab where the others had remained.

Soon after Charizard was talking with the once again fuzzy Fighting type. Alexa sent a dubious look over the two of them as the Fire type attempted to convince Heracross to participate in his idea. "So Charizard, you have something you want to try?" she asked in an attempt to defuse any potential pranks. The Fire type looked at his trainer and flapped his wings twice before holding them out stiffly. "You want to turn him into a Bug type?" she questioned him flatly with an incredibly unamused expression. The reptile nodded and then pointed at the short tail the Normal type now possessed causing his trainer to blink. "You think he will become something other than his original form?"

The entire group could see how this prospect interested their trainer, and seeing this Heracross easily agreed, already partially convinced by the earlier discussion. The rodent-like pokemon moved to an area downwind from the rest of the team and waited for his Flying type teammate to use the transformative move. Charizard easily flew above the other pokemon and quickly sent a small quantity of blueish grey powder down onto the former Bug type. The changes began and it was immediately apparent that the Fire/Flying pokemon was correct in his prediction of the results.

The first thing to happen was a general hardening of his triangular head, but with no inward motion to return it to the natural flattened shape. His horn and spikes all hardened to return to being part of his chitin, but their shapes remained closer to the altered versions present after his transformation to the Normal type. His tail gained a segmented look that was similar to the short near-abdomen that Rhydon experienced when under the effects of the move. His arms and legs altered to still be similar to his natural form overall, but the claws at the end did not change in number keeping the four digits given by the other change. The largest difference was with the overall shape of his body, which much like Charizard when exposed to the powder was segmented in a way that allowed for much greater movement. The large shell he had in his natural form did not appear at all, and it soon became clear he was not going to grow new wings.

Alexa looked at the changed form of her Bug type and couldn't help but giggle. "Well, it's a bit complicated, but I guess it works to let you have both your original type and that extra mobility," she joked, earning a huff from Charizard. "That was your joke, wasn't it?" she asked the Fire type, who nodded before landing next to the three typed pokemon. Heracross gave a clicking laugh before moving to trying out the previously attempted set of moves with this new altered form. 


	24. Psy Stones

\- Psy Stones -

Alexa was standing next to the desk looking over some paperwork while her pokemon waited nearby. She had spent most of the morning growing obviously frustrated as she looked over a newly added set of papers. "Alright, I think from the stuff we've used so far at least we know what kind of transformations work for us. The Clearwater Geode is going with Charizard, the Frozen Flame is Kingler's, and most of the other stuff we'd actually want to use we also know how to make ourselves. Another option for Crystal Syrup would be nice, but I'm out of ideas there," she told them while looking over into a small box with multiple labeled slots. "As far as types we haven't tried yet we are actually starting to run out. The Fighting type is one dad hasn't found anything he thought was worth getting to try." Heracross gave a mildly upset chitter at this. "Another type would have been the Fairy type, but apparently pokemon from around here that have that type elsewhere are usually Normal types. Dad doesn't have much experience with them so he only has a couple of things he wants to try himself."

She sighed at this point and took a glowing pink gemstone out of the box, and flinched slightly at it's touch. "This is a minor psionic stone, it gives emphatic abilities to anyone who is touching it and as part of that gives the Psychic type to them. Human psychics, particularly the ones my dad has tried talking to about this, tend to say that every creature is capable of making themselves the Psychic type with the right effort. Usually they then talk about stones like this one that grant the type as a way to practice." The trainer looked over to the box while trying to ignore the variety of emotions she was feeling from her pokemon. Charizard was playfully excited, likely thinking of pranks to pull using such powers. Bellossom and Rhydon were both contemplative, possibly considering what practical issues they had that could be solved with Psychic abilities. Kingler was uninterested and somewhat confused, Alexa thought she had most easily caught the trainer's frustration. Heracross was also uninterested, but in a more combative way probably because his preferred type was weak to such powers.

"I have six different items like this one. Each gives a different sort of power but they all have one thing in common that sets them apart from the stuff we have been testing. Can you guess what it is?" she asked the group. The various pokemon seemed to now clearly understand their trainer was in dark mood, but they had no idea what had caused it. Seeing no guesses Alexa continued. "Not one of them causes any physical change to their user. All of them work by letting you use the powers just as long as you are touching them, and the only thing that is different about you is that you are touching something." Looking over the group she could see and feel confusion and worry. In response to this she set the gem back into its space in the box and took a breath to calm down. "So, unlike everything else we have been trying, including the Nightmare Fragment, this does not actually do anything to you to make you into a Psychic type."

At this most of the pokemon continued to give her confused looks, but Charizard instead nodded and walked forward to look inside the box. After inspecting the various small items for a moment he carefully lifted the same gem Alexa had been holding out to rest in his palm. Wincing himself at the sudden sensation of the feelings of the others present he turned to his trainer. Once she entered his sight he turned away sharply, and then moved over to a thin box sitting on the desk from which he quickly lifted the previously mentioned Dark type cloth. With a quick motion he set the item over his trainer's shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief as the same minor changes in her appearance as before appeared. Ignoring her glare easily now that he could no longer feel her emotions the temporary Psychic looked over the small stone and his teammates.

After examining both the other pokemon and the gem for a moment he passed it on to Kingler with a short comment. The crab pokemon was also hit hard by the emotions around her, and looked nervously at their currently Dark typed trainer. Seeing that Alexa had calmed down some while wearing the fabric the Water/Dragon looked over the gem some herself while inspecting the others before passing it to Heracross, who took it with some distaste. The former beetle did not react as strongly to the new experience, but did frown at the glowing rock and quickly passed it to Rhydon.

The large reptile staggered at the touch of the stone, and narrowed his eyes at Charizard before looking over the others while deliberately ignoring the stone itself. After a moment he saw his trainer starting to take the cloth off her body and waved his free claw to stop her. With a now interested expression she watched him hand the jewel to Bellossom. The plant pokemon shuddered at the sensation of the item, and the after a moment of thought started to throw it into the air and catch it a few times. After around ten of these tosses she lightly threw it back to the Fire type who put the stone away in the box.

"Why did I need to be wearing this for your experiment?" she asked much calmer now while inspecting her fingernails. Charizard made a few faces showing various emotions, then held his hands fairly close together and pointed at the other pokemon, and finally held them much farther apart before pointing at her. "I was feeling stronger emotions than everyone else?" He nodded, then turned to the others and pointed at the box. The whole group shook their heads at it and then turned to nod at Alexa. "You agree then?" she asked surprised and happier than she had been the rest of the conversation. "You think it isn't enough of a change for us to bother working with?" The team gave wide smiles while nodding. "Alright, well that is all that we have for the Psychic type, every last thing," she said some what forcefully. "So I'd say we don't really have anything to test for that one." 


	25. Stable Cloud

\- Stable Cloud -

"Well, since we are just about done with all the types we have I figure we should just finish them off," Alexa told the team much calmer than the previous day. The trainer was still wearing the Dark type item, making her appear somewhat sinister despite her happier mood. "So, I got out the Stable Cloud we picked up." She moved the light box that was floating above the desk out for the group to more easily see then ran one of her sharp nails down the tape holding it closed, and fumbled with the box as it fell off a large white blob that remained still in the air.

"Um, well this is a piece of the Great Shell Storm. An explorer traveled into that massive weather phenomenon and gathered a good amount of it for testing," she told the group grabbing a piece of the cloud and attempting to break it from the rest. The mass of fluffy material gave her some difficulty with this attempt as it clumped together and stretched out. She continued prying at it for a short time unsuccessfully. "Uh, okay. This is a lot tougher than I thought it would be." Charizard moved forward and Alexa handed the cloud over with a sheepish smile. "Anyway, this is cloud from the kind of storms that are said to be the homes of powerful Flying type Legendary pokemon." Charizard spent a moment trying to pull and claw the material apart before turning to his trainer and shaking his head.

With a confused look directed at the surprisingly solid material she continued, "This stuff is able to turn pokemon into Flying types. However, unlike all the other stuff we've tried this takes a while to work. About an hour of holding onto it actually." Charizard chuckled and flapped his wings while handing the cloud back to their trainer. "So, does anyone want to try hanging onto this thing for a while to see what wings are like?" she asked the group. The time needed for the change sent the group into a new discussion, as instead of talking about if they wanted to try they began working out the order.

Bellossom was only partially interested in the item, but was helping Kingler out in the Water/Dragon's arguments to try the item first. Soon after Rhydon and Heracross both agreed with the reasoning that they had experienced flight with their Bug type forms. With amused expressions the group lined up with the crab pokemon first, followed by the former Bug type, the rocky reptile, and finally the dancing plant. "Well, that's nice and all," Alexa told them trying to hold in laughter, "but this one really is going to take a while."

Happy about the improved mood of their trainer the group eventually decided to simply have Kingler sit on the small solid cloud until the change occurred. After spending a few minutes inside the lab going over the documents that had remained inside the box it became clear that this was a long amount of time to wait. The group then moved outside, with Kingler trying to work out a way of moving the cloud herself using blasts of water. Charizard stuck close to her making sure she did not fall off during the attempts while Bellossom cleared the resulting water somewhat annoyed at the slight mess. Once outside the group went about trying a variety of small training project despite being thoroughly distracted by waiting for the transformation.

When the hour finally passed they all were already keeping an eye on Kingler. The Flying type was primarily a secondary type, and in fact pokemon with it as a primary type were almost unheard of, with single typed Flying pokemon being the stuff of legends. As a result none of the group were really expecting major changes from this type. Kingler shook on the cloud for a moment before a crackling sound echoed from the back of her shell. The large purple spikes along her back shifted slightly along with her limbs to allow for two large grey scaled appendages to burst outward with a crack. These thin limbs then grew a series of long fingers with grey webbing connecting them, soon taking on the shape of a pair of draconic wings. Finally purple armor grew over the main limbs and interior bones ending in spikes that extended a tiny ways past the edge of the webbing.

Kingler clamped her legs on the floating cloud as the motions of the transformation sent it tumbling. Uncoordinated flaps of the new limbs did little to help her situation. Charizard gave a grunt of pain as he grabbed the spiky crab pokemon to stop her movements. With an apologetic click she let go of the material and let the other Flying type help her to the ground. "Are you two okay?" Alexa asked rapidly writing in her notebook about the change. Charizard nodded with a touch of a wince, while Kingler looked over her new limbs with some interest. "I think the Frozen Flame had a lot to do with that one," the trainer commented as she moved to look over the changed pokemon, taking note of the ice crystal. The spine that contained the Frozen Flame had not grown, but the item itself had been drawn deeper inside of the purple spike. "We're not even going to think about removing that while you're like this, it's just too deep in there."

Kingler took a moment to try and rub at the spine with her smaller claw, before getting a confused look on her face. She moved aside and then blew out some air, creating a short and fairly week gust. The new Flying type looked surprised at that result, and then looked with interest at the pond. "Is something wrong?" her trainer asked as she finished making the notes on the transformation. The Dragon type pointed at the pond with her small claw, and then slashed the air in an 'X' pattern. "You lost your Water type? Why would," Alexa stopped herself and looked back at the crystal embedded in her pokemon. "I wonder if the Flame did that. It is the most powerful of the items we have tried."

The various pokemon moved closer to the Dragon/Flying type now, and Charizard began to give some basic instructions in how his own draconic wings worked. Heracross joined in soon after when the Fire type was left staring at his long tail wondering how to compensate for Kingler's lack. The former Bug type gave some small pieces of advice before the transformed crab began to attempt some flaps to try and get off the ground. This lead to a few false starts as the new form was not quite made like any of the previous methods of flight the team had used. Eventually Charizard helped Kingler back onto the cloud to try and build off of just moving air around with her wings first.

Simply getting her into the air under her own power took most of the day, although by the end the whole group was quite happy to see the new Flying type succeed in taking off. "Well, that was an interesting one. Does anyone else want to change today, or should we wait till tomorrow for the next one?" their trainer asked watching Kingler flap carefully next to Charizard fairly low over the field. Bellossom gave an exaggerated sigh to indicate she was tired, and the others nodded in agreement.

Kingler clicked sadly as her Fire/Water typed teammate lifted her spiny form out of the water. It had turned out that her ability to swim was not completely removed by her change as Charizard's own flight was by his, but she still was not able to move easily in the pond with her current set of wings. Nearby the fuzzy Normal/Fighting type shape of Heracross was draped over the Stable Cloud watching the others as he waited for the fluffy material to have an effect on him as well. Alexa was alongside Bellossom looking over the two pokemon emerging from the pond with some worry.

Any questioning was interrupted by a confused squeak from Heracross. The mammal's arms began to extend outward, his four fingers growing longer and greatly split apart with webbing spreading between them. His body then thinned slightly, becoming lighter while his muscles became more defined. His legs lengthened very slightly and his toes spread to have a wider stance. The now bat like pokemon's body then grew lighter in color to become covered in sky blue fur. Finally his short tail thinned somewhat and extended to twice its previous length.

The newly transformed pokemon gave a slightly higher pitched squeak before looking unsure at the ground from the top of the cloud. A clicking laugh from the still dripping crab pokemon got his attention, and a moment later Charizard gave a huff at seeing the newest Flying type turning to look to him for help. Bellossom gave a laugh at seeing her teammate be the one who everyone was looking at for advice this time. The Fire type set down the Dragon/Flying and moved to help Heracross off the cloud.

A short distance away Alexa carefully held up a small red device, almost cradling the relatively rare piece of technology as she pointed it at her pokemon. The lab Pokedex lit up one of the sensor along its front for a moment. "Unidentified pokemon, Flying/Fighting type," it stated robotically before she pressed a button to stop it's description from continuing out loud. With care the trainer set the device in the metal case it had come from and closed the container fully. She had only borrowed the Pokedex after her father assured her that he did not need it for his work, and also noted that he was interested in clear results for changes to already transformed pokemon.

"Okay that worked out fine, although I guess that doing this confuses these things," she commented carefully putting the case with the pile of documents next to her. "Looks like it replaced a primary type with a secondary again, although at least this time it replaced the transformed type." She looked over the mammalian pokemon as he stood up, his new wings spread slightly so he could see them better. He started to try and stretch, but was immediately stopped by Charizard who with some exasperation began to go over safer movements for his altered limbs.

Rhydon moved forward and looked over the now unoccupied cloud carefully. Kingler flapped herself in a still clumsy flight to land on it and began to discuss the changes with him. Bellossom gave an amused spark at the sight of so many of her teammates becoming a type weak to her own transformation. "Are we trying two of you at once?" Alexa asked her Ground/Rock type only to hear a pained squeak from the newest Flying type as his first attempt at lifting off the ground went badly. "On second thought we might want to take our time with this one," she said moving to check the heavily altered form her her pokemon. As she approached she saw Kingler move to follow her with still unsteady flaps of her own. "Yeah, flying is a bit of a bigger change than we can manage everyone working on at the same time."

After checking to make sure the thinned limbs were unharmed they moved aside to allow the pokemon to continue trying to get them working. Heracross struggled for some time with the difference between his new large strong flaps compared to the rapid buzzing he was used to using. Even after some time he was able to do little more than propel himself across the area in large hops while attempting to using them. Kingler in comparison had gotten enough of a handle on her own flight to be able to use it consistently to move around, if with quite a bit of wobbling as her strangely shaped body moved through the air.

Around an hour after this new transformation there was a repeat of the crackling sound from the previous day. Kingler quickly landed from her short distance in the air as her wings began to shrink back into her body, with the purple armor of their spines falling to the ground alongside her. The restored pokemon looked over the small fragments of purple armor curiously. "Huh, looks like that is going to be a thing with any changes you have now," Alexa said picking up one of them carefully.

Charizard looked over the results for a moment. Then moved the cloud over close to the crab pokemon and gave a questioning growl. Kingler considered the option for a moment and then had the flying reptile help her back onto it to transform again. "We are going to end up with you guys getting on and off that thing for the next few days, aren't we?" Alexa asked with some amusement as Heracross gave a squeak to have Charizard resume helping him get airborne.

"Okay now select the link icon there," her father said pointing at the icon next to the scan results on the Pokedex. "That will let it know this is the same pokemon. We will need to get this setup a bit better to handle these kinds of changes."

Alexa tapped the button and watched the results update to list Heracross and specify differences between his stats from the last time they had scanned him. That was some time ago so the comparison was not useful at the moment, especially as it had been before he became a Normal type. "So you want us to use the pokedex during our tests from here on out?" she asked as she checked over the data carefully. "So we can get it setup for when you need it later?"

The Professor smiled at her while looking over to see Heracross clumsily flying over the ground with a happy smile. "Back when I was getting the list of supplies for the lab together I ordered a new sensor system that links to the main lab computer. It is able to get much better data anywhere around the lab," he told her earning a confused look from his daughter. "I was planning on doing this just before you left for your next region, but you've managed to find a project of your own while helping me out. One that is impressive enough that you should have the equipment to do it properly."

Alexa held the small computer a bit tighter as she looked up to her father surprised. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I want you to have this old Pokedex for your own work," he said watching the rest of her team moving to see why their trainer was so shocked. "Really I'm feeling a bit bad that I couldn't be like old Oak and just hand them out to anyone I start on their journey," he joked as she held the small red device closer.

"Thank you," Alexa replied quietly cradling the Pokedex. "Thank you so much." she carefully put it into a pocket and moved forward to hug her father.

"I know you can use it," he told her returning the hug, "and you definitely love learning things enough to make good use of it. Now let's see about getting it in the right shape to actually work on your team. As you can see it doesn't come setup for pokemon that change shape all the time."

Charizard gave a laugh at this and looked over at Rhydon who was currently holding onto the Stable Cloud for his turn at being a Flying type. Kingler and Heracross were both still transformed from the previous day, although the bat-like pokemon was getting close to changing back. Bellossom, if she wanted to try, was at least waiting for the next day before she used the cloud. As the group gathered to see what the situation with their trainer was Rhydon gave a rumble and held the cloud out in front of himself.

There was a slight cracking sound as his outer plates once more started to flake apart into a new form. This time the rocky outer layer was becoming a coat of yellowish tan feathers that covered his entire body, including his belly plates changing into light brown plumage. His face hardened somewhat and melded along with his teeth into a large yellow beak. His arms extended outward growing large flight feathers as they morphed into a massive pair of wings. His long tail thinned slightly as it was covered in feathers, but otherwise remained much the same shape. Finally from his thighs down his skin changed to be noticeable brown scales that extended down to his feet, where his toes grew out even more than in his prior aquatic transformations into grasping talons.

Heracross immediately moved towards the newly transformed pokemon as the floating material tumbled out of new wings. Kingler landed on it grabbing the cloud with her long legs to keep it from floating too far away while the Fighting type compared his own wings to the new bird pokemon's. Alexa retrieved the Pokedex from her pocket and held it out towards Rhydon. "Unidentified pokemon, Ground/Flying type," the devices said before moving on to a number of more specific statistics in the time it took the trainer to silence it.

"That one is impressive, looking forward to flying?" her father asked the pokemon as he calmly went over the altered limbs with the former Bug type. The Ground type bird looked over and nodded with a chirp.

"It should be a bit easier this time, Heracross has already been working on the difference between Flying and Bug type wings," Alexa commented trying to find a good place to keep the Pokedex while she moved around.

Her father looked up at her. "He grew wings as a Bug type?" the Professor asked interested. "I've held off on that one myself, the powder is the best item we have for that one and I wanted to make more first so that I could do testing of multiple pokemon at once for better data on the common physical changes."

While the two humans became distracted with discussing their own projects Charizard moved the group of pokemon away to get the various Flying types used to their wings. Rhydon spent a good amount of time just listening to the three winged pokemon to go over their own experiences rather than trying himself. Before he even took his first flap Heracross began to return to his Normal type form. His wings shrinking back into hands, his tail and toes both returning to a short length, and his color darkening back to its prior shade of blue. The still reptilian pokemon gave a sigh and motioned for Kingler to bring the cloud over for the mammal to use again if he wanted, then gave a brief grumble to tell her to get ready to change back herself soon.

Rhydon shook his head at the antics and made his first attempt at getting off the ground. He gave a few experimental flaps of his feathery wings seeing how they lifted his body. Bellossom moved over to inspect his progress as the other three pokemon became distracted themselves going over if the crab should also stay on the cloud for the moment considering her short time left transformed. Nodding at the plant pokemon the newest Flying type carefully began to flap more quickly to lift himself off the ground to simply hover. After a moment of success he began to wobble, and then over-corrected sending himself tumbling lightly to the side. With a chirp he shuffled back to his talons and looked back over his tail.

Hearing a giggle at his fall he looked over to see that his trainer and her father had been watching his attempt. "Well, looks like you are making some progress," Alexa said with a hint of a laugh. "Let's keep at it."

A massive yellowish tan bird darted through the air after a large blue furred bat. The bat very nearly landed a powerful blow on the bird with his thin tail, but a burst of sand streaming out of the feathered form masked a quick dive taking the avian pokemon out of range. The start of a counterattack was interrupted by a small barrage of purple spines flying just short of the two combatants as a spiky dragon with thin insect-like legs and a massive claw entered the fight.

Alexa watched the Flying type portion of her team work on practice using that type somewhat absentmindedly as she scanned her many pages of notes into the Pokedex. The portable research computer was still in need of more configuration to fully allow for all of the tasks she was already planning to use it for. Her Charizard had decided to take a break from flying in general, and to make sure of that had taken on his Water/Poison type form. The aquatic reptile was periodically splashing himself with new blasts of Toxin Contagion to keep the other transformations from ending.

Rhydon's new avian body had turned out to possess an ability to use certain Ground type moves while airborne, at least for the sand and mud based ones. These attacks also seemed to get around the typical immunity to the Ground type that other Flying type pokemon possessed. This combined with how he was more quickly getting used to the changes than the others led to him being the one to beat in this impromptu sparing session. Blasts of distracting and abrasive sand were the option that the Ground/Flying type seemed to have decided were best for the time being, including creating brief sandstorms to mask his movements while also making obstacles to maneuver around. The few attempts to barrage his foes with globs of wet earth had been abandoned early on.

Heracross was once more having issues with keeping on the task at hand in favor of playing with his transformation. While his Bug type form did possess wings, they were not capable of flight on the level his was currently able to accomplish. His attempts to attack so far had been half hearted, and generally interrupted by changing them into trick moves while in the air. His Fighting type seemed to be lending enough strength and agility to at least avoid the moves of the other two pokemon, so he was still in good shape despite his distraction.

The fragments of purple armor that resulted from both of the times Kingler returned from being a Flying type had inspired her to try developing a new move based on the effect. She had just succeeded in creating and flinging small shards in what seemed to be a potential Dragon type attack. She was focusing on getting this new attack down despite how of the three she was still the worst flyer. The team was fairly sure she wasn't going to use the Stable Cloud again anytime soon, as Kingler didn't seem to be too enthused with the ability to fly considering her unusual form.

Bellossom was watching the display from atop the solid mass of cloud that had caused the other transformations. The Grass/Electric type had been somewhat reluctant to try another change that would definitely alter how she moved, but in the end seeing that most of the team was sharing a type she had decided to try herself. The occasional glares she sent towards the pond were of course because Charizard had found it funny to stop being a Flying type right after she made this descion.

After watching the rest continue their playful fight she felt herself begin to change. She gave a chirp to get the attention of her trainer and stood up on top of the fluffy material. The first part of the change was the yellow color on her body and leaves changing to a light blue. Next was the formation of new cloud material underneath her leaves that gave her lower body the appearance of a puffy dress. Her flowers remained the same orange with black lines that they had become when she gained the Electric type, but they grew much longer and more mobile as they began to turn in circles shifting the air around them.

Looking over the alterations to her body Bellossom found herself floating in the air as the small air currents from the shifting of her flowers took her away from the Stable Cloud. Her own mass of cloud was allowing her to counter gravity without any effort in much the same way as the material that transformed her. The plant pokemon gave a huff as her attempts at bending forward to look at the changes led to her turning upside down for a moment. After a moment of inspecting her situation while simply floating upside down she determined that her flowers could now be spun at will to produce winds that could move her body around. Flailing slightly she managed to use a combination of her arms and flowers to right herself back to an upright orientation.

"How is that Bellossom?" Alexa asked getting the Pokedex ready to scan her newly transformed pokemon. The Grass type made a wispy whistle and pointed at her new cloud. "It's kinda like the Ghost type?" the trainer asked getting a confirming nod.

"Alta-, Bell-, Jump-, Error. Restarting scan. Unidentified pokemon, Grass/Flying type," the device started with a stutter as it failed to identify the pokemon before giving up and resulting to the default response. Alexa quickly set about correcting the data received as Bellossom looked over the small computer with surprise after it tried to call her the wrong species. "Bellossom, Grass/Flying type form," it said after she finished updating the information.

A series of bursts of wind heralded the arrival of the rest of the team to inspect the latest Flying type. As the three of them started to crowd the plant she whipped up a small gust with her spinning flowers. Although not harmed by the action the trio did back up slightly with embarrassed expressions. After looking at the eager faces of the previously transformed pokemon examining her Bellossom gave a sigh and allowed them to haul her into the sky to practice.

"Well, that worked out I guess," Alexa said to the only member of her team that was not currently a Flying type as he got out of the pond. "Are you going to let those finish so you can show them how its done?" The only member of her team that would be a Flying type if they were in their natural forms gave a rumbling laugh as he shook his head. Charizard grabbed the cloud as he moved closer to sit next to his trainer and then handed it to her. "No, I don't think so. I'm fine staying on the ground," she jokingly told the heavily altered pokemon as they both looked up to watch Bellossom's attempts to gain control over her movements in her new form.

Charizard shot past the blast of scouring sand and the brace of purple spines, then twisted out of the way of a powerful kick and around the spinning leaves. The natural Flying type pokemon had finally joined in the attempts at fighting using the new forms, and much like with prior transformations the weight of experience was a deciding factor in his success. The Fire/Flying type had been on the receiving end of this skill gap for his other forms so far, notably despite his agility in the water he was not yet able to truly outperform Kingler in that environment.

Here he was doing massively better than the crab, who had re-used the cloud to remain a Flying type but still seemed uninterested in the effect overall. Her armored form allowed for great resistance to any attacks made to it, but between her clumsy flight and the reptile's own agility in the air she was reduced to just sending ranged attacks to force the group's target to move.

Rhydon had taken to his new avian form well, and had even proven faster and more maneuverable than the Fire type. However, Charizard had greater knowledge of when to use the various options for movement. The natural Flying type was using a mix of sudden wingbeats that sent him out of the way of the Ground type's attacks and blasts of flame that caused many changes to the fight. Notably Charizard was using his flames to make updrafts for a variety of purposes, including altering the course of himself, his opponents, and even some of the attacks made.

Heracross was just behind Rhydon in terms of aerial capabilities, but lagged on the combative front. The Fighting type bat pokemon had few ranged moves to begin with, and Charizard was expertly moving out of their reach while also sending the mammal off balance or into attacks made by others.

Bellossom was in much the same situation as Kingler, restricted in movement and most useful with ranged bombardment. Her attacks were unfortunately lighter than those of the Dragon crab or the Ground bird, and as a consequence more easily redirected into an ally. While the plant pokemon had retained the ability to use her Electric attacks, making her appear much like a plant growing from a storm cloud, they had proven even less usable in this context as Rhydon had retained his immunity. A fact Charizard had already exploited heavily to turn the potentially devastating moves into wasted effort.

Alexa watched with her new Pokedex set to record the proceedings as her Fire type blasted another Pin Missile attack. She giggled as the rising heat from the fireball knocked Bellossom off course just enough to end up in the path of Kingler at the upper edge of the fight. The small computer was creating a video of the events, but that was more to give a visual guide to the data gathered by the other sensors in the complex device. The trainer look with interest between the action above and the set of readouts she had setup to give information as she recorded.

Heracross slashed by the reptile rapidly trying to land a hit with his spiked horn in an attempt to follow up his failed ranged attack. This was done alongside a small sandstorm being created by Rhydon and used as both a way of restricting movement and a source of projectile attacks. Charizard merely banked past both with wings spread widely. The bat pokemon had to quickly flap to skim past the sand and then needed to make a sharp turn to be moving alongside the target again. Right afterward Rhydon was briefly visible as he outpaced his storm to try and move back into the Fire type's path. As had occurred many times over the fight he easily shifted position to be in front of the other pokemon, with the swirling ball of grains lagging just slightly behind him.

Their trainer moved backwards a short distance to keep all five of the pokemon in sight of the sensor systems along the front of the device. After finding a good spot she glanced over at the much smaller piece of Stable Cloud her father had managed to cut free from the rest. The palm sized mass of material was tied to the side of her bag, causing the fabric attached to it to bulge slightly as it held itself above the ground. The results and utility of the item had more than justified having some for future use.

Bellossom gave an annoyed chirp as Kingler clamped onto her cloud in order to stop her brief tumble from the sudden updraft. With a thoughtful look the Grass type began to plot with the Dragon crab, and moments later they were ready to strike. As another blast of heat disrupted the swirling sandstorm and sent its creator off course Kingler sent another attack towards their target. Charizard quickly exited a relatively leisurely pace as he heard the incoming Dragon typed spines by dropping lower, curling his wings in a way that turned him so he could see the attack better. The powerful spines passed by quickly followed by Bellossom, shooting forward with her propeller-like flowers and the help of Kingler's scaly wings.

The pair gave a shout as they closed on the natural Flying type surrounded by arcing sparks from the now darkened clouds of the plant pokemon. Charizard gave them a smile as he continued to drop, and suddenly flapped back upwards into the remains of the Ground type hazard just as the edges of the electrical attack reached him. Kingler gave an upset click at the results and the small singed pieces of her armor that were a consequence of the attempted move.

The Fire type emerged with minor damage from both the edges of the sparks and the sandstorm. While this was the most that the four of them had really managed so far the gap was clear as immediately after clearing the storm he twisted around both the beak and horn of the remaining two pokemon altering the wind using his wings in order to send them crashing together. Charizard finished by sending a large blast of flame right at the remaining pair of pokemon, hitting the singed crab and cloudy plant before they could dodge.

"Alright guys," Alexa called from the ground below. "We're getting close to time here, and I think you've managed to last long enough to get Charizard tired." The reptile laughed at this, but quickly moved to land with the others following. Once on the ground the Fire type sat down heavily and began to pant, earning a glare from his trainer. "Maybe you lasted longer than that. What have I said about hiding how worn out you actually are?" The only response was a tired chuckle that made her groan as she finished saving the data collected for later analysis. The four temporary Flying types landed in something of a pile, with the feathers of Rhydon soon argued over as a place to rest by the two smaller team members. 


	26. Regirock Candy

\- Regirock Candy -

Small glassy grey cubes were rattling around the bowl Alexa was setting down on the table. The team was back to their now normal types. The actual Normal type as a primary for Heracross, with his natural Fighting type for a secondary. Kingler and Bellossom had their added secondary types of Dragon and Electric respectively. Along with Charizard and Rhydon with their natural setups of Fire/Flying and Ground/Rock. The five of them crowded in close, eager to see what was next after the unique experience of all of them having the same type for a time.

"So we missed out on the Rock type. The Ashes could cause it, but I think we are more than done with that one," she stated getting nods from the group and a grumbling chitter from Heracross. "This is a better option for getting just that type. Regirock Candy, named for the Legendary golem present at the location where it was first identified." She held up one of the small pieces of stone. "Dad's been growing these in special mineral water for a while now, so they actually haven't been an option before."

Rhydon moved forward to look over the items and nodded at the small amount of powdery material that had broken off from the jostling. Charizard gave a huff and nodded at his trainer and teammate acknowledging the item. Bellossom looked at the items and asked Kingler a question, getting a shake of the spiky pokemon's body in response. Heracross gave the items a glance, but did not move forward instead starting a conversation with the natural Rock type. "The way they work is that for two days after eating them a Rock type will have more power to work with, while anyone who wasn't one will end up with the type for that long. It says that they cause rocky areas to form on whoever is transformed, but from what my dad's done so far it seems more like they become living rock while staying mostly the same shape."

Bellossom gave an interested chirp poking one of the cubes. Charizard looked at his plant teammate and gave a joking bow indicating that she could go first with this one. "So two days is more interesting than thirty?" Alexa asked rhetorically. The fact that Heracross started the laughter that followed that reassured Alexa that her joke wasn't in bad taste. "Right, whenever you're ready."

The Grass/Electric type grabbed one of the cubes, and then attempted to chew on it only to wince at how solid the material was. Pulling it into her mouth to suck on instead had her make a face at the taste. "I really hope dad didn't just trick us into trying to eat rocks" Alexa said after some time passed, although Bellossom shook her head at that. The group was starting to grow nervous at this point, only continuing the attempt because their teammate was sure it was working.

After a good ten minutes Bellossom excitedly nodded. The first change was the spreading of a grey color over her body. As this passed the texture of her skin, leaves, and flowers altered into a crack covered rock surface. The lines indicating her Electric type became thin groves that began to glow with a slight yellow color. The overall effect resulted in her body resembling a statue, with only her slowed movements to look over her own body indicating she was still a living thing. Charizard even gave a questioning growl that prompted her to hold still for a moment, which made the effect more pronounced.

"That's interesting," Alexa said nervously. "Are you okay?" she asked the transformed pokemon as she got the Pokedex out of the new pouch she had added to her belt. The new Rock type nodded, the motion taking a notably longer time. The trainer inspected the small computer's results with the voice readout disabled, as she had not yet gotten it to restrict itself to only the information they wanted immediately. "Huh, it replaced your Grass type. I wonder what actually determines the type that is replaced with additional transformations," she said with her interest in the question replacing her slight worry over the inanimate appearance.

The team inspected the statue like pokemon with interest of their own. Seeing how much slower she was moving had basically removed any desire to try this item from Heracross. Kingler was itching at her thick armor while looking over the stiff leaf shaped parts of Bellossom's body that were still slowly curling like leaves as the former plant moved. Rhydon looked over the at the desk full of older work thoughtfully as he discussed his experiences with the Rock type.

Charizard moved to pick up another of the small cubes from the bowl. "Already want to try it out?" Alexa asked him as she looked over the shallow cracks and groves now covering the new Rock type's body. The Fire/Flying type nodded and put the candy into his mouth. He then started to grind on it somewhat, unlike Bellossom's careful treatment of her teeth regarding the rocky food. His trainer glared at him a bit for this, but soon noticed that his mouth was working away at it while also seeming to be overly full of spit. "Have you been trying to use Water type attacks while you aren't one?" she asked getting a nod from the reptile.

Just after his response, and far more quickly than the previous attempt, his own transformation began. Unlike Bellossom his skin merely became covered in slightly larger rock like scales, although the coloration and texture did change to much the same rock grey. His arms bulked up noticeably and along with his legs grew slightly longer. His wings then altered greatly, starting with their membranes shrinking away. The next change was the ribs of the limbs shrinking and altering to have claws at their ends as they became fingers. The limbs themselves reformed then changing giving the now rocky scaled pokemon four clearly defined arms. His tail remained largely the same, with only a small rocky structure forming around the tip that made the flame into a focused vent rather than just an open flame. The final change was two similar, although much larger, craters forming along his back just behind the locations where both his old and new arms connected. These took on a dull red color, and appeared to be additional flame vents.

Bellossom gave a gravely sound at the sight of the changes that the same item had caused in her teammate. This was clarified as something of a huff as she wheeled her arms to indicate his changed limbs. Charizard was not paying any attention however, instead giving a cross eyed look at his new hands and was uneasily attempting to move them. Heracross and Rhydon both shared a surprised glance before moving forward to inspect the newly changed three clawed limbs. "Fire/Rock type it seems," Alexa said going over the new Pokedex data. "Looks like you've got new places to make fire too," she said moving it over the craters. Seeing that the pokemon was struggling with his altered limbs she moved to get the others out of the way.

Bellossom made her way over, frowning at how much slower she was. Looking at the larger temporary Rock type she gave a cracking sound that left everyone staring at her due to its strangeness, including the statue pokemon herself stopping in shock at it. This seemed to snap the usually playful reptile out of his confusion over his new arms as he began to chuckle at the stony noise, his own voice also more gravely. "Okay, looks like this will be an interesting one," Alexa said to them putting away the Pokedex. "How about we head out to do some practicing with this?"

Alexa sighed heavily at the sight of Charizard holding as still as possible. The result was an appearance of being an overly elaborate statue that only vaguely resembled a member of his species. Bellossom could pull off the effect better due to how much she still looked like her original form despite multiple transformations. "It's not working, even if you still had your wings the tailflame is a bit too much for someone to put in," she told the prank loving pokemon, who gave a disappointed huff of flames. The additional flame vents had thrown his ability to control his fire off, and it did not seem to be helped by his now greater resistance to the heat.

A rumbling drew the attention of the two over to where Rhydon was teaching Bellossom how to replace their target stones. The Ground/Rock type had some kind of idea that would require this, and despite once again having troubles moving around because of a transformation Bellossom was willing to aid in them. The two were obviously planning something, but Alexa trusted them enough to let herself be distracted by helping with Charizard's more extreme change. As the large rock broke the surface of the ground the Fire/Rock type seemed to recall his part in the plan and made a grumbling sound to call her attention back to him by making another attempt at using his new body parts.

The altered limbs and added fire vents were both giving him considerable issue, to Alexa's surprise as they both were simply altered versions of existing body parts. The claws that had previously been his wings even looked nearly the same as his normal set of arms, but it seemed that it was not as simple as using the same skills on a different limb. The key issue seemed to be that he was not used to the fingers being present, but not connected to each other. However, of the changes she was more concerned about how hard using the two flame vents was appearing to be. The accidental bursts of fire out of them reminded her of when Heracross became a Fire type, but she could not think of any prior change that added a difficulty to how the pokemon could use one of their natural types. "How about we try working with these like they were your fins?" Alexa suggested pointing to the vents. "See if that helps you use them for attacks." The four armed reptile looked up at her and then smiled at the suggestion.

With their trainer thoroughly distracted the remaining Rock types moved to talk with their other teammates about Rhydon's idea. Heracross had several questions on the topic that led to him looking over the two with an interested expression. Kingler gave more interest in the response to the Normal type's inquiry than the original subject. Bellossom was quickly moved back to trying out a variety of moves and abilities that Rhydon was used to using. The Ground/Rock type himself was looking over the grass and plants around the field with interest as he instructed his teammate.

Nearby two large blobs of lava shot out of Charizard's back and splattered a short distance behind the Fire/Rock type. The reptile looked back at these with surprise and moved to inspect the result. "Huh, actually that looks like it could be useful. Can you aim behind you?" his trainer asked arriving alongside him next to the cooling stone. He poked at the one of them, and then picked up the still slightly blob like mass to see it better. With a smokey huff he motioned for her to move back a bit and tried again. This time he crouched down low before trying to fire the lava again, this time attempting to send them forward over his head. One of the two blobs shot past a short way to hit the ground, but the other ended up hitting one of the transformed wings. Unhurt by the molten rock sticking to the surface he flung it off the limb with a sharp motion, sending it a longer distance compared to the more successful shot. "That worked somewhat better. Maybe we can try to work with that method instead? It might help with getting both parts at the same time," Alexa suggested.

The two groups continued their projects training the temporary Rock types for some time. Charizard became more proficient in using the extra arms from having them throw the increasingly easily formed balls of molten rock, and even managed to get started on a bit of a rhythm using all four grasping limbs. The major thing that limited this practice was the increase in effort that this move took over his more typical Fire type moves, which meant that he was quite tired after a comparatively short session. Bellossom was having an easier time with her own instruction, but that was mostly because of her group taking more breaks for discussion. When it came to actual moves she was also getting rather tired, but more from the greater difficulty she had with movement in general using her stone body.

"Alright, that's enough of that for the day," Alexa said happily to both groups. "Now how about we take a break and you two can show me what this idea of yours is?" she then pointedly asked Bellossom and Rhydon. The two looked at each other a bit nervously for a moment, but Rhydon shook it off and moved up to his trainer. He motioned to the grass, then pointed at Heracross who was still Normal type due to the change being extended by the days spent as a Flying type, and finally spat out a small blob of toxic material to land a short distance from the other pokemon. "You think we can extend the length of Crystal Syrup using another transformation, like the Toxin Contagion?" she asked somewhat skeptically. The Ground type nodded with a hint of a smile.

"Okay, that is something that would keep you transformed like that for longer, which does help. However, it is still going to take another dose to transform you again. So the issue is that even with doing it like that is if you ever want to change back we can't easily give you that form again." The reptile nodded again and pointed at the two temporary Rock types, and then at Kingler's claw. The Water/Dragon formed a small amount of the toxin cleaning liquid letting it pool for a demonstration. "Yeah, that covers someone handling Rock type effects and turning you back," Alexa acknowledged. "Still, we don't have that many secondary transformations that last a long time." The trainer then looked aside at Bellossom with some embarrassment before continuing, "and it seems strange to go through all this just to end up with a Poison/Grass type."

Rhydon and Bellossom shared a look at this, and then the statue pokemon let out a low creaking groan like a foundation taking too much weight in realization. Charizard gave a clinking laugh at the sight of the two of them looking so surprised over the minor detail. "I'll talk with dad about it, see what he has to say about the Syrup, and let you know," Alexa told them motioning towards the lab. "Now how about we take a break and think it over a bit more?" Given how tired the transformed members of the group were everyone easily agreed. 


	27. Plant Prototyping

\- Plant Prototyping -

"I'm actually working with the groups that make Crystal Syrup trying to find easier ways to produce it," the Professor began while still looking over data on the main lab computer. "We've actually found quite a few methods to change a pokemon into a Grass type, although most of them have reduced compatibility. It takes more pokemon to make the same quality result, which means they aren't as helpful as being able to just make Grass types would seem. Many of these other changes can be just as tricky to us, or even shorter in duration for more effort." He saved his work and opened another file showing a large number of Grass type pokemon, and a larger list of temporary members of that classification. "The exception seems to be the Syrup itself, pokemon changed by it seem to be twice as effective. Unfortunately the duration makes breaking even a bit difficult in that case. It is only safe to take so much sap at a time, much like with blood."

"A pokemon it's transformed works that much better?" Alexa asked surprised. "Does it decrease when they use another transformation after that one?" Her father turned to look at her with an interested expression. "I mean, I guess that it probably does, but that would at least let them have time to recover while delaying them changing back, right?"

"We haven't tried anything like that," he replied thoughtfully. "Most of the sites only have the Syrup available, and I had not considered the delaying aspect of secondary transformations." He turned back to the computer and opened another file, this one the master list of transformative items. "Anything that removed the Grass type would definitely not work for more than extending the length, but given the degree of transformation caused by the Syrup that might be the type retained more often." The Professor rubbed his face. "Could I ask you to try a few different examples to see what changes for me?" he asked after a moment. "Some extra eyes could make a lot of difference here."

Alexa was shocked at the seriousness of the question. "I was asking about it because Rhydon came up with using another transformation as a way for him to stay in that plant form a bit longer. We were already planning on trying a couple to see which he would like best," she replied with a touch of embarrassment.

"If this works out he might have just made it a lot easier to make more." Her father looked her in the eyes. "That would make it so the Syrup could be used more often when major injuries occur. It does work as a medicine on pokemon transformed by it, so two doses can be used to help pokemon that aren't normally Grass types."

"Okay. We'll see what happens and let you know," she told him in a bit of a daze as she walked out to the main area of the lab.

The rest of the team was waiting nervously in the room, and at the sight of their trainer's distress their mood took on a touch of disappointment. She moved past the two temporary Rock type pokemon to the small bottles of Grass type medicine. "Dad says he wants us to see how various second transformations work for the Crystal Syrup. If it works out well we might have found a way to make it easier to make more." The group blinked at this response, then Rhydon gave a single laugh at the situation. "Yeah, we are good to go," she confirmed a bit shakily before setting the bottles down and moving to grab a larger jar the team had filled with Toxin Contagion for use on the road.

Rhydon carefully picked up one of the bottles and turned to his trainer to make sure he could use it. He drank it right after he received a nod from her while she got the Poison type material ready. His body once again changed into a topiary in the shape of his natural form sculpted around a core of dirt and thick roots. Charizard gave a gravely chuckle and went over to the camera setting on a set of file cabinets along one wall. After the Ground/Grass type finished a joyful repeat of his usual stretching out routine the Fire/Rock pokemon motioned for him to stand next to Bellossom. Alexa laughed at the sight of the two inanimate looking pokemon making a pose for the Fire type to capture with the camera. "Great idea Charizard. We'll talk about who showed you how to use that later," she told the Fire type who looked at the camera like it had betrayed him. "Now are you ready for the next one Rhydon?"

The plant pokemon nodded and held out a leafy arm for her to use the dropper on. The small glob of toxin fell and brushed past the leaves to the dirt and wood below. Immediately the soil portion of Rhydon's body began to take on a wet appearance, then congealed into a thick black tar. Hints of this sticky coating replaced the patches of dirt along his wooden tail and a thin covering of it appeared on the branches that poked out from his body to hold his eyes and form his claws. The leaves of his plant body grew slightly larger, altering his appearance to that of an overweight Rhydon. Finally small red berries formed in a couple of small bunches scattered along his back.

The newly changed pokemon looked over his body again, this time able to bend just slightly farther than before if a touch more sluggishly. Alexa moved to inspect the change more closely as she got out the Pokedex to run a scan. "Would you mind if I got dad to try collecting some sap before we move on?" she asked looking at the initial results and then starting up a recording to scan more thoroughly. Before answering Rhydon used one arm to carefully shift aside the leaves on the other to look more closely at the limb. Seeing a thick coat of tar on the root with small branches extending upwards with their own spotty patches of the black substance he nodded.

The rest of the team moved in closer to get a look at the newest changes. Charizard gave a wide smile before pointing out the berries while miming gagging to indicate they were likely poisonous. Bellossom moved behind the Poison/Grass topiary to get a better look at them, only to have her stony visage morph into a display of shock as she found herself unable to identify the plants. Heracross saw this and gave a chittering explanation along with some basic Fighting moves to compare the reaction to his own loss of a key type.

"Alright, this is a good start for what dad asked for. How about what you wanted?" Alexa asked halting the small computer's recording. "Is this working out so far?" Rhydon gave a thoughtful creaking sound, before pointing outside to indicate he needed to work with the change more to give an answer. "Is it okay if I ask dad about getting some sap first?" The reptile shaped plant nodded easily at the request and returned to looking over his body with the others while his trainer returned to her father's work area.

A thick tar coated vine slashed past the Fighting type scattering small bits of black gunk across his body. The mammal replied with a punch ringed with flames that sent his Grass typed opponent skidding backward. This led to Rhydon chuckling as he moved back further while Heracross found that his forward surge had ended up in a small puddle of the sticky tar. He proceeded to work quickly at trying to remove himself from the tar while also doing what he could to avoid further attacks by the Poison/Grass pokemon.

"I'm glad this one is working out at least," Alexa said to Bellossom as she inspected a crack that had formed on the still Rock type pokemon during her earlier training. The split was tender, but considering how it was slowly closing it seemed to be a minor issue overall. The statue like pokemon was a mixture of embarrassed and exasperated with how her trainer was worrying over the wound. "We will still need to try some other types for dad, but I think this idea was a success." Charizard gave a chuckle at the sight of his fellow Rock type's grumbling even as he sat nearby with his own small cracks where the two of them had collided.

Kingler looked over the small patches of tar that Rhydon was leaving as traps during his training. The thick goop that now made up much of his core was not actively poisonous without effort on his part, but was still more of a toxic than earthy material. Seeing that Heracross was basically done, and that her Grass typed teammate really did not seem to need this training, she began to send short blasts of the toxin clearing move at the small patches. The Normal typed combatant gave a defeated sigh at the sight of her cleaning up, while Rhydon gave a deep chuckle and started trying to clean up the spots himself.

Thoughtfully he started by sticking his long wooden tail into one of the splatters, and then pulled the tar up the limb temporarily coating it fully in the substance as the majority of the puddle lifted off the grass below. Looking at the residue that remained despite his attempt he turned to his arm and gave a curious bubbling sound. After a moment of concentration he was able to lighten the color to a toxic purple and thin the tar into the more typical version of Toxin Contagion. With a happy smile he tried to go further, and attempted the same changes he had struggled with when he had the Rock type as a secondary.

Alexa looked over and gave a cheer as she saw him succeed at producing the thin light blue material. "Alright Rhydon! Looks like you managed that," she called out to him as the other pokemon noticed and gave encouragement of their own. Kingler in particular motioned to the puddles still dotting the field and sent another burst of the same liquid into one of them.

Rhydon nodded at their responses, the motion fluid in a strange way that caused the pokemon to pause midway through. Looking over his body again he spread out his arms and let himself fall forward. As he hit the ground his roots shifted out of the shape of a reptile and into a formless mass of leaves and liquid. The rest of the team watched fascinated as he then managed to effectively flow a short distance before pulling himself together and miming the act of panting, the fluid portion of his body rapidly hardening back to tar.

"Acid Armor," Alexa said with wide eyes. "That was Acid Armor. You've end up mostly liquid with the full Toxin Contagion change, and that means that making it thinner requires the same skills as that move," she explained at the various curious faces pointed at her. "So before you weren't able to hold yourself in a familiar shape while doing it because most of you was getting less solid, while here you have all those roots holding you in place." The trainer smiled widely at the astonished look on the Poison type's face. "I bet that would be a surprise to Vaporeon if you had a rematch like this." Rhydon finally broke out of his shock over the reality of what he had accomplished to laugh at the image. The Poison/Grass pokemon started to move towards his trainer obviously quite tired, and with an apologetic rustling to Kingler he sat down and began to sun himself next to her.

"Any ideas on what you want to try out next?" she asked checking him over, and becoming distracted enough for Bellossom to move away to speak with Charizard. Rhydon gave a tired bubbling, then scratched at his chin. After a moment of thought he pointed out to the pond, then at her back earning a confused blink before moving on to indicate the Stable Cloud, and finally finished by pointing at Bellossom. "So I got the geode, the cloud, and being silly and going for rock type, but what was pointing at me about?" Alexa asked him shifting the Nightmare Fragment she had taken to wearing every once in a while. After a moment of getting an unimpressed stare she looked at the Dark type cloth thoughtfully. "I'm actually not sure this is enough of a change to work for delaying the others," she confessed taking the material off. "We might want to test that first, probably using the geode on some of the others. Actually we should probably check that one before we try the cloud since you can just take it off again." The Poison type nodded at the small change.

Heracross motioned behind himself and wiggled his arms to indicate wings. Rhydon shook his head and picked at his leaves. "Yeah, I think being a plant counts as less suited to being a bug compared to being poisonous," the trainer agreed. "Mundane Clay probably won't work for basically that same reason." The group nodded at the logic, although the former Bug type did so with a touch of disappointment. "Those should be a good test of things for dad, and we can always try others later."

Rhydon stood near the pond in his Ground/Grass type form watching a slightly more pointy version of his Fire typed teammate return to being a Flying type from a Water type despite wearing the piece of black cloth. "Well, that was a bust," Alexa commented while removing the Nightmare Fragment from the winged reptile. "All things considered I think this one changes pokemon about as much as those Psychic typed stones." Charizard gave a huff and pointed at the sharpening of her fingernails as she once again wrapped the material around her shoulders. "Ok, it changing me too probably should have told me that, but I've heard stories about when this stuff works on humans and those sounded a lot more impressive than this," the trainer replied holding her hand up.

Charizard looked over the hand with some interest, the Fire type had stopped being a Rock type during the night. Despite transforming first Bellossom was still a living statue, possibly due to the difference in how they had eaten the candy but the team was not sure that it wasn't partly the reptile disliking the extra arms. He gave a chuckle and moved to use the Clearwater Geode to transform again. "Are you ready to try that one?" Alexa asked pointing at the drinking lizard.

Rhydon nodded and took the stone from the once again Water type fire-breather. The two of them filled a bottle with the glowing liquid before setting the geode aside where it was out of the way. The Ground type plant took a gulp of the liquid and passed the bottle back to Charizard. The changes to make him into a Water type started with his leaves pressing inward and growing thicker while changing to a light brown color. The result was a hide covered in large noticeable scales that covered the pokemon's body as his form returned to the solid structure of a reptile, and these were the only notable change from when he used the geode to transform in his natural form.

Rhydon gave a sigh after seeing how he was no longer a plant after the transformation. Alexa pat his shoulder while Charizard gave a half hearted grumble at the glowing water. "Well, at least you got another hour out of it. We already know this one delays the change." The large scaled reptile nodded sadly and the group began to do some light training to pass the time until he returned to his topiary form.

A crackling sound interrupted them soon after, and Bellossom's stone skin began to crack off in shards revealing her plant body underneath. After just a few moments the fully restored Grass/Electric type was standing in the middle of a pile of stone shards. Alexa laughed at the plant's sudden burst of movement as Bellossom took off in a dancing run now that she wasn't stiffened by the transformation. The trainer began to collect the chips while Rhydon moved closer to inspect them, shaking his head when he remembered that he was on another long term vacation from the Rock type.

After the end of her return to normal their training shifted to attempts at using moves from types the group did not currently possess. Charizard worked on testing out his Water type form's moves to get a better idea of how they worked in general. Bellossom and Rhydon worked together on Rock type moves, mostly attempting to reproduce the utility aspects they had worked together on just a short time ago.

Heracross and Kingler spent this time going over the small cluster of items being assembled for the next journey. Charizard's Clearwater Geode got the most use out of any of the collection, followed by the Nightmare Fragment that their trainer had taken to wearing. A good sized block of Mundane Clay was present for the former Bug type's continued use. The small fragment of Stable Cloud was now in a net like section of the bag that held it completely. Jars of Toxin Contagion and Chitin Powder were present, along with a number of empty jars in case new materials of the same kind were discovered by the team. A small number of Loam Berries and a tiny jar of Capacitance were also packed just in case the group decided to use either of them again. Finally several pieces of the latest item was sitting a bowl of mineral water to grow out more Regirock Candy.

The hour passed by, punctuated by Rhydon's body fluffing out into the shape of a leafy plant again. The pokemon then moved to hold his palm over the small solid cloud for another hour of wait. With his change also ended Charizard moved on to attempting to produce water despite his complete lack of the type. Kingler had over the time period convinced the remaining two pokemon and their trainer to join her in experimenting with an attempt at modifying the move for the Dragon or Electric type. The latter experiment was going worse than the former, as the two types seemed somehow less compatible with the liquid based move compared to Charizard managing a larger than average ball of spit.

After this second hour Rhydon's Flying type change started with the dirt of his core puffing outward into a thick cloud that ran through the center of his body. The next change was a reshaping of the branches in his head to extend all the way to his mouth where they expanded out to form a large wooden beak. His arms were once more changed into wings, this time made with feather shaped leaves. His legs and feet transformed much more thoroughly than the previous change to the Flying type, reshaping entirely into wooden talons at the end of his mostly cloud covered avian legs. His tail shrank noticeably and grew a coating of large leaves that looked like tail feathers. The end result was a bird shaped topiary with relatively few parts that even hinted at him being a Rhydon, the clearest hint being his twisted wooden horn.

The newly transformed pokemon gave an airy chirp as he looked over his altered body. Heracross gave a joking squeak while pointing between the two of them with a laugh at how they both looked very little like their natural form, making Charizard snort the mouthful of water he had just spent a few minutes making. "Huh, it looks like the kind of topiary you are changed," Alexa said thoughtfully. "If it does work that way then maybe the Bug type will work?" She asked him. Rhydon gave a whistle and a shake of his head, then flapped to push himself off the ground. He then looked confused for a moment as he found himself hovering in the air despite not continuing to lift himself. "Ah, you're just not interested in trying it for this project?" The cloudy bird nodded while inspecting his new fluffy core and how it was light enough to lift the plant portion of his body all on its own. Seeing how he was now similar in form to her own use of the Stable Cloud Bellossom moved over to aid the transformed pokemon in his experimentation with this alternative shape.

Alexa looked over the small cubes sitting in the bowl of mineral water with consideration. After one day they had grown slightly longer, with an obvious seam where the original cube had ended. From her own estimation it would be at least a week before more usable cubes had grown, and given how long that was she had gotten a thick jar to move them to so that she could hopefully grow them while she traveled. The remaining four of the cubes her father had given her were outside of the water ready for use.

Rhydon was still flying for the moment while his body was still a mix of cloud and topiary in the shape of a bird, or rather that had a default shape like a bird. The Grass/Flying pokemon had spent the rest of the previous day getting used to the changes, and then decided to use the remaining time in his form to practice the Acid Armor move. He had spent most of the morning experimenting with the ability to stop being a solid pokemon. So far he was mostly becoming a stringy leafy cloud during his attempts as he simply broke apart to just cloud and leaves around his thick roots, his shape more determined by the passing winds than his intent.

In the midst of one of these tests Heracross suddenly gave out a cry and began to change. His face compressed inward and became more solid along with the rest of his fur fusing into the shell of a beetle. His tail also retreated back into his body as it returned to his original form. The extra fingers and toes his Normal type form possessed merged together back into claws as his limbs stiffened back into chitin. Finally his horn and spines returned to their natural state as his antenna grew back out of his head.

The disappointed click that followed his change ending prompted Alexa to begin getting out the block of Mundane Clay again. Rhydon took a moment to recover his avian form and descended from the sky while the Bug type used the material himself to transform this time. "It is about time for you to change back too isn't it?" the trainer asked the Flying type while the insect rubbed the brown material into his shell. The bird shaped pokemon looked over the rest of the team working on their own projects before answering his trainer with a nod and a chirp. Once more the spiral horned pokemon was left waiting for the transformation to finish before they could continue with this project, choosing to spend the time looking over the makeup of his body in greater detail.

The morning's events had shown him that the roots inside his body were all connected together by winding around each other in the center of his body. There was one for each of his limbs and an additional two for his head and torso. His body's cloud formation was coating all of the roots and it did not seem to be possible for him to separate any of this part of this aspect of his body from the rest of the fluffy white material. This poking of his form was cut off by the clouds condensing inwards back into dirt while the basic shape of the plants shifted to once more look like a leafy sculpture of his natural form.

"Ready?" Alexa asked him holding out a cube. Rhydon gave her a wide smile as he took it from her, and after looking it over thoughtfully ended up sticking it into the dirt portion of his chest. The material dissolved away with surprising speed. The group watched with interest as he braced for the change. Only moments later he got an intense expression and motioned to Bellossom to come over. Confused over why he was not transforming she moved forward to the ground just past the edge of the pond. The Ground/Plant pokemon then gave a focused motion and raised a slightly larger than normal rock out of the ground. "That's the improved abilities result, isn't it?" Alexa asked sadly getting a calm nod from Rhydon.

The plant pokemon motioned to the bag questioningly. "So you want to just go for Poison then?" He nodded and they proceeded to get out one of the stored jars. "Might as well see about using this in the field." The two first attempted to pour some of the toxin out, but seeing how close it was to having some of the hazardous material end up on the outer side from spilling while they poured. Instead Rhydon poked a claw into the jar, causing a fairly small amount of the substance to sink into the wooden digit prompting the change. "I think we will need to work out how to clean one of the droppers to take with us," Alexa said to Kingler as the topiary pokemon changed to tar instead of dirt. 


	28. Oxide Berry

\- Oxide Berry -

The patch of soil her father had setup on the back side of the lab was filled with a variety of berries being used for his research. The plant Alexa had led her team to look at was a twisting spiky silver bush surrounded by scraps of rusty metal embedded in the soil. Three large red berries were on the plant ready to be picked. The trainer had a jar of orange jam speckled with red held in her hand. "This is one of the better Steel type items we have, Oxide Berry jam," she said tapping the jar.

Rhydon rustled with interest at the topic, his form still a topiary with a tar core. Bellossom looked at the berry bush itself with interest. Charizard gave a look to the jar and the berries but seemed unusually uninterested. Heracross shared a look with Kingler and the two began to discuss the possible outcomes with their preferred types. "These berries have been found growing in some rusted out ruins. They take about a week to grow, and eating one of the berries themselves makes a pokemon immune to poisons for four or five days. That is a nice enough effect, so people tried to make them into jam. That works for some berries to make a new food that has a slightly less powerful version of the berry's effect."

Alexa held her finger at a point just barely below where the substance filled the small jar. "A jar this size is made from around six berries, and you get almost twice that many uses out of it. However, instead of just making the pokemon that eats it immune to poisons, it transforms them into the Steel type. Usually adding or changing their secondary type, and lasting the only two or three days." Rhydon looked thoughtfully at the thick tar of his chest and then back up to nod at his trainer. Heracross nodded as well with an interested expression. "Dad is growing them, and we can't really recreate this setup while we are on the road because of the metal needed. Still, it makes a lot for a small container, so I thought it would be something we could have on hand if it works out for anyone," Alexa said while opening the jar.

Rhydon moved forward first and gave a bubbly chuckle at the sight of his trainer looking at jam with a bit of confusion. "I forgot to get something to put this on," she said before putting the lid back on. Looking up at the plant volunteer she inspected his current shape. "Are you sure you want to layer the changes this deep?" she asked with a hint of concern as she began to walk to the nearest door inside the lab. Rhydon nodded at the question and pulled a thin strand of tar from his chest with a wooden claw. "You want to see what it does when you are the Poison type? That does sound like a good thing to test."

The group gathered in the main room while Alexa searched out a knife to spread the substance with and eventually resorted to the already opened bags of dried food for a way of getting the material into their bodies. "Ok, is Rhydon still first or has that changed while I was busy?" she asked her team, getting a bit of a laugh from them as Rhydon stepped forward and looked between his normal bag and Bellossom's. "We haven't figured out how this affects the food situation yet have we?" the trainer asked dryly as she let the Poison type try both to see which tasted better for the moment. He settled on his old mix as tasting better, despite not possessing either of his natural types, and they moved forward with the test.

Rhydon quickly ate the small piece of dry food after Alexa carefully measured out a portion of the jar onto it. Looking happily surprised at the taste he nodded to the others. The first thing to change was the nature of his leaves, which changed to something close to the spiky appearance they had seen on the bush for these berries. The color of his foliage shifted from green to a lighter almost yellow. His many branches changed by growing out pieces of metal in various places, most notably the twisting horn becoming studded with sharp fragments. The thick tar that made up the rest of his form shimmered and lightened in color to a shiny metallic grey. The semi-liquid texture of this part of his body changed into a flowing watery consistency, causing it to move like pure mercury.

Seeing the flowing liquid that now made up much of his body caused the pokemon to laugh louder and smile widely at the group. "I take it you expected something like this?" Alexa asked him while getting out the Pokedex. "Still, it makes sense. Mercury is poisonous and that makes sense as a way for your Poison parts to become metal." The small computer beeped to indicate it finished the initial scan. "Grass/Steel, huh. I wonder why the order changed this time." The team moved in a bit closer to inspect the changes while she continued to go over the data. "The liquid part is actually a bit more poisonous than the tar was," Alexa said with surprise, causing everyone to step back a bit while Rhydon got an interested expression.

While he was thinking the metallic plant pokemon began to test out his mobility, this time with boneless movements that were the result of his recent practice with the Acid Armor move. Heracross chittered a few questions to the newly transformed pokemon as he shifted his body around, getting rustling answers and prompting some inspection of the embedded pieces of metal. Bellossom looked over his form in detail, before motioning questioningly between his back and the jar of jam. "No, I don't think he's going to grow more. Although looking at him I think you might be able to plant one on a Steel type that ate a Loam Berry," Alexa replied thoughtfully to her pokemon's question.

Rhydon turned to look at his trainer with a happy smile and then pointed from the jar to the bags of food sitting around her pack. "Yeah, we're going to try and keep this stuff on hand. It will be a bit easier than some of the other stuff, because dad can grow more for us, but we will still need to think about when we use it considering how much we need to use." She then became slightly nervous looking between how much the pokemon was liking the change so far and the suddenly much smaller looking jar. "I think I'll need to ask dad how much we can get."

Heracross spat out the bit of food that had been from his mix, looking at the bag dubiously he moved to help clean up before they continued. "I don't think you ever really liked that stuff," Alexa noted as she put the Bug type focused bag of food aside and got the others ready for the pokemon to try. After a short while they settled on what had been Alexa's mix, which the Fighting type seemed to like more than she had. "Maybe we should have gotten a bit more variety when we were at the store," the trainer said while spreading the Oxide Jam on the piece of food. "Something to think about next time we need to restock."

Heracross ate the food happily, although he did not quite enjoy the taste of the jam as much as Rhydon. His horn and spikes all quickly changed to be made of strong sharp metal. This seemed to be the only noticeable change to the pokemon from the substance, but he immediately went through some movements afterwards with consideration. Alexa could tell there were some differences in how he attempted some of these moves, but did not know exactly why he changed how he did them.

After the new Steel type had gone through a number of Fighting type moves in a short practice session the trainer let out a laugh, mirrored by Charizard who was looking over a page of notes on the desk. "We basically just made you into a strangely shaped Lucario didn't we?" she asked the blue furred Fighting/Steel type pokemon. He proceeded to close his eyes for a moment and moved his head around. After a minute of so of this attempt at Aura Sight he opened his eyes and shook his head in the negative. "I was mostly joking."

Charizard moved to look over the two pokemon that had gained the Steel type. Rhydon was discussing the mercury like portion of his body with Kingler, the two rather obviously going over possible methods of adapting the team's transformative moves with relation to the new change. With a chuckle at this sights he walked forward to his own bag of food and took a piece out, holding it to his trainer. "Alright, looks like this one might end up popular," she said as she repeated the action of preparing the dried food. "We'll probably need to ration this stuff," she mumbled to herself as she handed it back looking at how they had already used a quarter of the jar.

The Fire type chewed thoughtfully, also not seeming to find the taste as good as Rhydon. The first change was the orange color of his scales becoming a shiny red as they hardened into metal, with only tiny gaps between the small scales making the whole of his skin look like it was a single solid piece while still allowing for the Fire type to move relatively freely. His claws took on the same metallic sheen and his horns likewise changed into metal while also sharpening and curving backwards, resulting in them becoming like a pair of blades curving backwards from his skull. The area around the tip of his tail once more had the end flatten with a hollow in the center that the flame was sent out from, causing the heat of it to become concentrated like that of a blowtorch. Finally his wings became rigid blue metal sheets with a sharp lower edge, but did not disappear even as it became clear that he was now heavier in this form and thus unlikely to fly. Instead the two inner membranes separated from each other into movable segments that seemed much less capable of bending. These folded over each other as he closed the limbs at the end of the change the plates rigidly laying on each other across his back like a quartet of broad flat spines.

Looking at the retained limbs curiously Charizard spread them back out again to give a couple of testing flaps of the now rigid wings. This did not lift the new Steel type off the ground, but he did rumble thoughtfully at the result. "Huh, you look kinda like a Scizor. How's it feel?" Alexa asked carefully moving closer to inspect the newly sharpened parts of his body. Charizard gave an amused huff and then pointed out the window to indicate he needed to test it first, before considering for a moment and asking the two remaining non-Steel types a question. Kingler shook her claw in a negative fashion and Bellossom gave a chuckle while also shaking her head. "Okay, I guess that's all the changes for this one. How about we head out and see how well they work?"

Rhydon nodded happily before using Acid Armor once again to flow as a mass of leaves and liquid metal around the others to the door. The others simply chuckled at the sight and followed the excited plant outside.

Charizard rocketed across the field as two small plumes of flame blasted out from the base of each of his altered wings. The resulting short hop was clumsy and the metallic reptile only managed a clean landing due to his long experience with flight. Heracross quickly moved to great him after landing, having seen a similarity between this attempted flight and his own Bug type form's capabilities. Charizard grumbled a bit at the unsteady flight, but happily joined in the conversation with the Fighting/Steel type.

Alexa watched the flight thoughtfully with her Pokedex recording the events. "I'm starting to wonder if we should be talking to Gym leaders and other Professors about all of these little details. See how other pokemon of these types compare to the alternate forms we're collecting. It's at least something to think about when we get back on the road at least," she told the group looking over to Rhydon and Kingler's project. The Grass/Steel type was working with the crab to fill several small jars with liquid metal that they were attempting to alter in the same way as Toxin Contagion.

"How's that coming?" she asked the two as they looked over the short row of glass containers. Rhydon tapped the first containing what looked like the same liquid that made his body, prompting Kingler to produce a small amount of the purely poisonous liquid. The next was much a shinier almost white color, which Kingler compared to the anti-toxin. The third was between the two in color, and was apparently their new variant on the actual Toxin Contagion. The final one was a blue metallic liquid that they compared to the cleaning move Kingler had developed. "You guys already think this will work? You haven't been testing this on each other have you?" the trainer asked concerned earning a full body shake from Kingler who pointed between the jars and the lab. "Yeah, dad should be able to find some pokemon willing to test it. Any other plans for the moment?" she asked helping the two of them seal the jars with their lids. Kingler motioned to Rhydon and mimed splashing someone. "Well, I guess trying to use it as a move has always been short term. Let me take these to dad and ask him real quick before you start," Alexa told them picking up the containers and making her way back to the lab. "I'll be right back."

Moments after this Charizard suddenly sends a blast of flame over the heads of the two, making them jump in surprise. Looking over to the Fire type they saw he was hovering slightly over the ground by directing two jets of flame to push him up that were being emitted from just under his wings. The mix of thrust and rising hot air was obviously struggling to keep him up, while the mild annoyance on his face at his trainer being distracted from the achievement made the others nervous. Landing heavily he motioned for Rhydon to come practice with him. Realizing he now had a dual weakness to the flames of the upset lizard the metallic topiary only nervously moved to work out fighting in their altered forms.

Rhydon had become far more confident and comfortable with allowing his body to lose its shape, which helped greatly against Charizard who at least focused on practicing slashing strikes with his razor sharp claws and wings. Heracross soon joined in on the efforts, although the Grass type combatant was disappointed to find the former beetle intended to make the fight a free for all. Seeing the three temporary Steel types going at it Bellossom moved from working unsuccessfully at using Rock type moves to watch alongside Kingler, who was nervously focused on Charizard's mood.

Just as Alexa returned with a thoughtful expression the former Flying type sent a burst of flame that panicked the Grass/Steel type dodging into the Water/Dragon, sending both to the ground in a pile of leaves and spikes as Bellossom jumped out of the way. The two looked over in surprise at their trainer laughing at the result, before she turned in amazement at the once again hovering Fire/Steel type pokemon. "Wow! Did working with the Rock type transformation help you with that?" she asked as the two pokemon untangled themselves. Charizard nodded happily as he landed heavily and turned to let her inspect the altered body parts.

"I have some maybe good news about us being able to more easily use the Steel type on the road," she told the group while looking over the barely visible vents at the base of Charizard's wings. The Fire type looked interested in this and moved along with his trainer to where the others had gathered. "He was really surprised with Rhydon and Kingler's project, and wants to have us test it out with a couple of volunteers tomorrow. Some of the pokemon he got together are willing to try stuff that we don't know the duration of, the kinds of things that might be permanent." Kingler looked worried at this statement. "A couple of them are going to be trying this," she held up the jar of altered metal, "to see how long it lasts. I also want to try the toxin cleaning move with it too, this is related to the contagion so it might work on it as well." Rhydon nodded at the idea. "We also are going to be teaching some of his pokemon that one before we leave anyway. We kinda are the only ones who know how to do it right now and being able to return from the Poison type easily would help him out a lot," Alexa admitted with some embarrassment.

Heracross moved closer to look at the shiny liquid before launching into a series of questions directed at Rhydon. Kingler meanwhile moved up to her trainer and pointed between the jar and her Frozen Flame. "Yeah, there is a risk that if it does work it is forever. Dad has a number of things that do that, and I've been avoiding any that can't be reversed at all. The Ashes were bad enough." The Water/Dragon nodded still a bit worried. "Still, it's a brand new substance, and if it works the same then we have a better idea how any other new materials you guys make that way will work." This seemed to partially reassure the crab pokemon, who motioned to Rhydon to have him come over to continue work.

"Well, with that out of the way what about you two? Are you liking this change?" the trainer asked the remaining two temporary Steel types. Heracross looked thoughtful for a moment before holding a hand level and waggling it to say he didn't have a strong feeling. Charizard looked over his altered wings, then looked at the small jar again. After a moment of thought he pointed to the wings and nodded, then pointed to the jar and gave an interested grumble. "Well, I guess if you want to compare the two we will need to wait until we know this one is safe." The Fire type nodded and then gave a questioning look towards his Fighting/Steel teammate to continue the earlier training. Alexa laughed at the eager nod Heracross replied with and proceeded to get the Pokedex out to scan the resumed combat. 


	29. Mercury Contagion

\- Mercury Contagion -

Three volunteers sat nearby as the team prepared to test their new material. The first was Eevee, and according to Professor Larch he was fine with the risk as he was actually looking to evolve in an unusual way. Second was a Sandslash who had apparently seen a traveling trainer use a foreign variant of her kind who was partly the Steel type, and from what she had seen she wanted to gain the type herself. Finally there was a Vulpix present and willing to be potentially altered permanently, although Alexa did not know his specific reasoning for agreeing to this test other than that he had agreed along with the Eevee.

"Alright then, what we have here is a brand new substance. This was made by my team here in order to adapt a method of changing pokemon into the Poison type that they use to instead cause the pokemon to become Steel typed," Alexa started pointing to where her pokemon sat to introduce them to the three pokemon. The trio looked somewhat nervously at the five members of the team. Eevee pointing to Heracross and squeaking out a confused question to Vulpix, who motioned to Rhydon with a similarly confused expression. "The substance this is based on is Toxin Contagion, and hopefully it will work somewhat similarly." The evolution pokemon looked up at the trainer with interest at the mention of the Poison type substance. "In particular we will be seeing if a move we have that ends that transformation works on this the same way while also looking into the effects of this particular substance." The trainer looked over the three pokemon seriously as she got out a large jar of the shining liquid metal Rhydon had made the day before. "I know my dad has already asked you this, but I just want to make sure. You are aware this may be irreversible, and are still willing to try despite that?" she asked getting resolute nods from the Ground and Fire types along with an annoyed huff from the Normal type.

"Well in that case who wants to go first?" she asked the group. The two fox-like pokemon looked at each other challengingly, making the spiky pokemon roll her eyes and step forward. "Okay," Alexa said with a laugh as she used the dropper to measure out some of the shimmering liquid onto the Ground type. Sandslash's brown spines immediately changed color to a metallic silver, and then proceeded to melt into a fairly thick coat of liquid along her back. After a moment of losing their shape they reformed in an intricate pattern that seemed to flow down her back with new spikes forming near her head then traveling down to her tail where they melded into the liquid mass again. Her claws also became made out of metal, but these remained hard and sharp. The rest of her skin became shinier as it too became slightly metallic while remaining solid.

Sandslash looked backwards at the moving metal with curiosity, and after a moment managed to slow down the movement. This also seemed to cause the spikes to all melt down into a large reflective coating along her back. She then proceeded to restart the spikes, and then managed to briefly reverse the direction they traveled. "Ground/Steel type," Alexa told the pokemon finishing a quick scan using the Pokedex. "So are you ready to have us test turning you back, or should we wait till after everyone is changed?" The newest Steel type looked thoughtfully at the trainer, earning angry huffs from her fellow volunteers. She then laughed and motioned to the two canine pokemon and returned to examining her now fluid spines in detail. Rhydon moved closer to inspect the changes and began a conversation with her, showing how his own body was altered in a similar way.

"Right then, have the two of you decided who will be first?" Alexa asked amused. The remaining pair of volunteers turned towards each other to began a staring contest. While the two small pokemon continued to glare at each other much to Alexa's amusement the rest of her team moved over to join their topiary teammate in discussing the results of their project with its first subject. Sandslash started off glad to speak with the group, but as the conversation continued the specific questions and comments from the team seemed to unnerve the pokemon. This became quite apparent when Rhydon was listing off his current set of transformations, complete with motions to nearby items to let his trainer understand his meaning. This series of changes to his type finally broke the staring match between the two as Eevee turned with surprise at there being a third layer to the change, causing Vulpix to yip happily and turn to the trainer.

Laughing a bit at the antics she prepared the dropper again and motioned for the Fire type to come closer. The fox pokemon yipped at the cold drop as it touched his back. As it finished sinking into his skin the color of the fur changed into a dark metalic grey, with his belly fur taking a lighter shade and the previously darker color of his paws changing to an orange matching his original tail color. Those orange appendages were the next to change, with both them and the small mane on his head melting down into swirling liquid metal the same color as that on Rhydon's body. The five tails remained mostly separate behind him, only merging together when they came in contact and splitting back apart quickly as they moved away from each other. The last changes to occur were to the pokemon's ears and claws which both noticeably sharpened and became larger.

Vulpix turned around somewhat confused by the sensations coming from his tails and ended up chasing them for a moment up until he managed to briefly submerged into their now molten form causing him to fall over in surprise. Eevee gave a yipping laugh at the sight of his rival's confusion. Sandslash sighed and along with Rhydon started trying to help the pokemon work his now liquid body parts. Alexa hid her own giggle as she turned to the last of the three. "I'm guessing that you're ready?" she asked getting a smug nod from Eevee.

Immediately after the third drop impacted the small fox-like pokemon's back his entire form changed to match it in color and sagged downward. In just moments his body melted down, features smoothing out and mass spreading across the ground until there was just a fairly thin puddle of silvery metal. Cries of shock rang out across the field at the sight and Alexa froze in panic, simply staring at the result with wide eyes. In just a moment the other pokemon present were speaking to each other worried or struck still and horrified. Those still watching the liquid were the first to see it move, although it was not until a mass of it rose out of the rest that they realized what was happening. Shocked gasps made the others turn to watch the pokemon reform from the pool he had become. First the mass became just the general shape of an Eevee, but soon after the rough body parts were in place smaller details began to form out of the metal. When the newest Steel type's eyes finally reappeared his body appeared fairly close to its previous form, but it was obvious he was experiencing disorientation at the result of his own change.

"Are," Alexa started but had to take a shuddering breath before she could continue, "Are you okay?" The small pokemon gave a burbling sound and shook his head to clear it, obviously not up to answering clearly yet. After a moment more of getting his bearings he turned to the trainer and nodded, pointing to the pond and squeaking in a metallic way. "One of your relatives is a Vaporeon?" Alexa asked a bit more collected getting a nod that turned into the pokemon's face briefly melting away. The group simply sat for a time while the scare of the latest transformation passed and the now liquid Eevee began to familiarize himself with his new form. "I think, maybe we can wait for you three to get used to these forms before we continue. Okay?" she asked the three of them getting nods of agreement from everyone present.

Eevee slopped across the field, bouncing up in the air and then mostly splattering onto the ground, ecstatic about his change. Nearby Vulpix was sitting still while he worked on getting a handle on moving his flowing tails. Sandslash had already gained a fairly through understanding of her own changes and was continuing to discuss changing in general with Alexa's team of pokemon. "Looks like Vulpix is now a Fire/Steel type, and Eevee is now a pure Steel type," Alexa said to the various pokemon after checking the two most recently transformed pokemon with her Pokedex. Watching the two of them trying out their new forms with interest. She smiled at their enjoyment of the alterations, the worry from Eevee's change mostly vanquished by his obvious happiness with the overall result. "Are you guys ready for my team to try and change you back?" she asked getting a calm nod from Sandslash and two reluctant ones from the canines.

Kingler scuttled forward and motioned to the pokemon to stand in front of her. "Right, this is a move that we developed to return a pokemon to normal after using the Toxin Contagion, it also removes the Poison type from pokemon that have it. Because the change you are under now is partly based on the Toxin we hope that it will work to return you to normal." The three nodded to show they understood. "If it does work you will still be able to use the Mercury again, and we want at least one of you to do so in order to test if there is a duration to the change." Sandslash's liquid spines speed up with a bit of excitement while Eevee melted forward slightly. Vulpix had a thoughtful look at the clarification and gave a yip to indicate he was ready.

Kingler looked to her trainer and at Alexa's nod sent a splash of the glowing blue liquid onto the Fire type. The metal color ran off her body as a thin liquid, soon followed by a small amount of the shiny liquid metal which flowed off of his suddenly returned hair and tails. Vulpix looked mildly disappointed at the success, but immediately joined the other three volunters in jumping at the loud cheering that came from Alexa and her team. "Alright! We have a new transformation we can make," the trainer said looking excitedly at Rhydon, who received a clap on the back from Charizard. The three borrowed pokemon looked at each other somewhat nervously at the response. "Right, we should probably make sure. Who wants to be next?" Eevee raised a liquid paw in the air somewhat cautiously.

For this next time Rhydon made an attempt using the metallic version of the cleaning move. The liquid splashed onto the transformed Steel type and proceeded to restore him. This time the surface of Eevee's liquid body seemed to harden as he was forced into a standing shape, then a thin surface layer melted off his original Normal type form. He looked over his body before nodding at the trainer. Sandslash waved her clawed hand at the crab pokemon to finish the test. Once again the reversal of the change was merely her color returning to normal as a small amount of the liquid ran off of the parts of her body that had been made out of it.

"Thank you. Let me know when you want to change again," Alexa told the trio only to get immediate eager nods from them. "Alright, let's get that done then," she told them with a laugh as she went to get more of the new material. Soon after the three were once again partially liquid Steel types. Eevee, seeming quite happy to have melted into a puddle a second time, hopped up into the mass of liquid metal coating Sandslash's back. The Ground type sighed heavily as the rest of the group looked nervously at the sudden disappearance of the fully liquid pokemon into a part of her body. With a simple movement she reached back into the mass of liquid and easily pulled the blob like form of the fox-like pokemon out and set him on the ground.

Alexa's team soon convinced the trio to work with a bit of training along with her team while she used the Pokedex to analyze their changes. This soon resulted in Charizard once more sparing with Heracross, Rhydon and Kingler working with Sandslash on how to make the variants of the metal that caused and cured the transformation soon joined by Bellossom, and finally the two canines faced off against each other in an obviously common way. Vulpix moved easily on his still normal feet, but was thrown off slightly by his harder to control and slightly heavier tails. Eevee was managing to remain more mobile, but was obviously unused to being non-solid and was spending more time figuring out how to move than attempting attacks of his own.

Time passed with the three groups all making progress, with Sandslash successfully and happily learning to make both the substance that caused her change and the cleaning liquid. Eevee also quickly became adept at moving in his liquid form allowing him to more easily dodge his rival's moves. Vulpix eagerly engaged the flowing pokemon, growing more confident in his movements and beginning to move his molten tails as part of the attacks he was making. Alexa contributed several times to all three projects with data she was collecting and analyzing on the Pokedex.

After managing to hit his target with a burst of heated liquid metal Vulpix paused in his motion. He stood rigidly, seeming to almost be considering something, before he began to morph. His whole body increased in size drastically while also smoothing into a lithe vulpine shape. All of his fur melted together into the same liquid as his tail forming a thin layer over most of his shape, but not extending to liquefy the form underneath. The mass of liquid metal on his head extended backwards into a flowing spike while the new layer across his skin thickened notably on the portion of his chest just below his neck. Finally his tails merged into one massive beautifully flowing length of metal. As the new Ninetails finished changing with his ears growing larger still he smirked and split the masses of his tail and mane into multiple strands, with his tail becoming nine prehensile tendrils of molten silver metal.

"You evolved," Alexa said with surprise missing the annoyed look Eevee sent the other fox pokemon at this development. The trainer moved the Pokedex to scan his new form. "Ok you are Steel/Fire now and- This has an entry?" she asked turning the sound up and restarting the result readout.

"Mercurial Ninetails, Steel/Fire type. This rarely seen variant of the fox pokemon is known for its trickery, using the shape changing nature of its liquid metal coat to mimic the form of other pokemon briefly while their mirror like surface displays a matching illusion. The method by which they evolve is unknown," the device stated before continuing to list more details. Ninetails smugly yipped at Eevee following this.

Looking between the two Alexa thoughtfully considered what she had seen of their actions. "You two were having a contest to see who would be evolved by this stuff first, weren't you?" Eevee nodded grumpily at the question prompting Ninetails to laugh at the other Steel type. "Well, I'd hate for this to go wrong, but I have to ask, are you willing to see what happens when we try the cleaning move on you now?" the trainer carefully asked the regal looking metal fox. A worried look crossed the newly evolved pokemon's face for a short moment before he nervously nodded. "You don't have to, I'd understand if you aren't willing to risk your new form." The canine shook his head and walked over to the others, his movements sure and easy while his liquid tails merged back into a single long flowing mass.

Kingler asked a couple of questions directly to Ninetails before splashing him with the cleaning move again. This time the glowing liquid slid off his metal coated body without being absorbed, although it did make the portions hit shine a bit more as they cleaned the mercury like material. After a moment of consideration Rhydon stepped forward and tried again with the liquid metal version of the move, which did sink into the other metal but likewise did not change the pokemon's shape. "Looks like that is just your body now," Alexa said looking over the happy fox pokemon, who gave a content rumble at the result. "Well if you're fine with it I guess this worked out then. You two will probably end up testing if this stuff does wear off after a while, but otherwise we have our answer," she told the remaining two test subjects, getting a happy smile from Sandslash while Eevee ignored her to glare at Ninetails. "Thank you for your help." Alexa's team repeated her thanks in their own ways and moved on to discussing the new material and its potential applications.

The group waited until day after the three volunteer pokemon were transformed into liquid based Steel types to use the substance themselves, mostly to let the Oxide Berry Jam wear off first. The metal trio decided to join them again, interested in seeing what happened to others that tried the substance. Heracross returned to normal with as little alteration to his body as his spines and horn stopped being made of metal, and his movements went back to normal almost instantly.

Rhydon's return was similarly minimal. The small fragments of metal embedded in his branches melted into his mercury like core before thickening back into the tar of his Grass/Poison form. Kingler was then enlisted by the topiary pokemon to return him to a Ground/Grass type before they continued. The three liquid metal pokemon watched this display of shapeshifting with a notable unease, particularly Eevee who melted down partially after the second change to hide his reaction to how the pokemon was still transformed.

Charizard had ended up reshaping back quickly, but his metal skin became a thin layer over his original form that he was peeling off carefully for quite a bit of time. Kingler was once again asked to help with his return, this time to help cut the metal apart as he got it free to more rapidly remove it. While he had seemed to enjoy the change itself to a degree the long process to deal with the remains obviously soured his mood. The Fire type did not even look at the resulting pile of metal when they finished.

"Alright team, who wants to try this stuff?" Alexa asked while getting the dropper and jar of liquid metal ready. Much to her surprise the entire team raised their hands. "Really, everyone? Eevee did melt into a puddle with this stuff," she said, actually getting an agreeing nod from the mentioned puddle of metal. Bellossom and Heracross merely nodded to show they were interested. Charizard pointed between the pile of metal pieces and himself, indicating he wanted to see if this worked out better. Rhydon simply laughed at the idea he wouldn't want to try. Finally Kingler scuttled forward and dropped her large claw onto the ground to say she wanted to go first. "Okay, I guess everybody's going to be made of metal for a bit."

The crab pokemon did not react to the drop contacting her armored form, seemingly not able to feel it through the thick spines. The first change was this purple almost rock like armor changing into metal, with the already sharp edges becoming even more hazardous and the purple color remaining in a now metallic sheen. Her legs then hardened into the same purple metal and grew additional claws on the end of the limbs that awkwardly gripped the ground as she tested moving them. The remaining grey portion of her body underneath this spiny shell then changed to a silvery metal color, and proceeded to melt into liquid. Unlike Eevee this did not leave her spread on the ground as the purple portions of her body held the flowing portion together, with the new alterations to her legs resulting in them becoming what looked like metal tubes containing the fluid form.

Rhydon reacted first to the change by giving a thoughtful rustling as he began to compare the results to his Poison/Rock form's similar armor around a mostly-liquid body. Bellossom looked over the resulting form thoughtfully and turned to her trainer and gave a chirp to indicate she wanted to go next. Charizard moved closer to poke the small portions of visible liquid that formed Kingler's joints. "How is that Kingler? This is the easiest for us to change you back from," Alexa asked with a touch of concern. Kingler nodded slightly at the result, and looked over her altered limbs. With a touch of concentration she threw her large claw forward, the pipe-like arm separating and the limb launching forward connected by a line of the liquid metal, hitting the ground a short way off with a solid thunk. The crab pokemon burbled happily as she pulled the flowing line of metal back.

Shaking her head at the response the trainer got the dropper ready again as Bellossom moved to try herself. The blob of liquid fell onto her skin, and the group once again witnessed a pokemon melting into a puddle. Bellossom's dress and feet were the first to liquefy into the spreading puddle. Next her rather simply shaped body merely flowed downwards and out, with her arms vanishing quickly into the silvery mass. Finally there was a moment where her two flowers sat on the surface of the puddle before melting themselves to join the mass of molten metal. Alexa held her breath as the group waited for the former plant pokemon to reform herself. Bellossom's flowers reemerged first, looking almost as if they had merely sunk beneath the surface rather than becoming a part of the puddle. The rest of her body followed quickly after, although her skirt and legs did not reform, instead remaining a pool of metal that gained a leaf-like pattern that twisted as she turned.

"You okay? Able to move alright?" Alexa asked with concern after the reformation ended. Bellossom moved forward over the ground in a flowing motion, the leaf patterns on the lower puddle of her body shifting to appear as if they were what was moving her. Looking thoughtful she turned to her trainer, pointed at the pond, and attempted to mime a wave crashing. Instead however she unconsciously shifted her body into the appearance of a wave for an instant, and afterward the leaves of her puddle were replaced by a mimicry of the tentacles she had possessed after getting transformed by Charizard's Soak. "Wow, um, do you know you are doing that?" the trainer asked pointing at the changes to the pattern. The former plant pokemon looked down and noticed how she currently looked more like the octopus form she had once possessed than her usual plant shape. After a moment of concentration her pool of material returned to the leafy pattern, then the liquid metal pokemon took on a thoughtful expression and altered it to appear as a small patch of flowers and then began to shift into a variety of shapes. Alexa laughed seeing her pokemon playing with the patterns on her surface.

Rhydon was the next to move up to try the new item. Alexa and her team were already fairly sure how this would occur so they instead paid more attention to the results of the two prior transformations. The liquid metal drop fell through his leaves and immediately caused his dirt core to melt into the mercury like material it had been just the day before. Rather than his branches forming small pieces of metal they split and multiplied while his leaves changed shape to a smaller version and grew more numerous. The result of these two deviations was that his mimicry of the natural shape of a Rhydon was far more accurate. The final change was an odd shifting of the color of the leaves and metal, causing them to finish the illusion and make him almost appear to have returned to his natural type.

The trainer looked thoughtfully between Bellossom, Ninetails, and Rhydon while he went over the changes to his body with a touch of confusion. "Rhydon, can you try something for me?" she asked as he poked at the stone grey leaves mimicking the plates on his head. "Try and look like Charizard usually does."

With confusion he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, nearly looking up when the others let out a gasp midway through. His branches and leaves moved in his attempt, shifting and repositioning into the general shape of the Fire/Flying type. His head narrowed while the front of his muzzle flattened, with his horn moving to lay flat underneath the leaves that moved to cover the two branches containing his eyes. The plates at the back of his head disappeared inward while the two ear like ones at the top took on the tube like shape of his teammate's horns. Next his arms narrowed greatly and his hands thinned away to just three longer claws of wood and leaves. An additional claw extended outward from his feet, and his tail's length extended. A pair of thin branches extended out of his back into the shape of wing bones. Then the liquid metal filled in the last of the details, with a thin sheet forming wing membranes while a larger glob mimicked a fire at the end of his tail. Finally the color of his leaves and metal changed to match the oranges and blues of a Charizard in the appropriate locations.

Opening his eyes he looked in surprise at how close he had gotten, and turned to his trainer noting she seemed to have expected the result. "I think this material gives whoever uses it the ability to mimic others," she said to the group thoughtfully. Looking somewhat uneasy at looking so much like a Charizard the topiary pokemon let go of the change, quickly returning him to his somewhat normal looking form as the various branches and leaves settled back into their normal place.

Charizard chuckled shaking his head at the result and walked forward. "Ready to see what it does to you?" Alexa asked him getting another dose ready. Charizard huffed and moved forward, pointing at Bellossom and Rhydon indicating he was now interested in her idea regarding the substance. The rest of the team let out a groan at the idea of the Fire type having the ability to disguise himself, confusing the trio of borrowed pokemon once more. The flying reptile and human both laughed at the reaction before moving to use the liquid.

Charizard's skin immediately shifted to a shiny grey color. Then his claws, teeth, and horns sharpened into metal points, with the horns changing into simple straight points this time. His wings then proceeded to melt down into a pool of liquid metal that coated his back and extended all the way down to his tailflame. Then some of the flowing metal rose back up in two lumps that formed back into the shape of his wings. Looking backward at the large area of molten silvery material he flapped the wings, their shiny surface staying complete with no drips as he did so. With a bit of concentration he folded them downward and altered their shape to that of his fins from his typical Water type form, small bits of the coating flowing downward to his hands and feet to form the webbing and extended claws of that alternate body.

Alexa moved forward and looked to the pokemon while holding out a hand. The newest Steel type looked over the liquid metal for a moment before nodding. She put her hand against the edge of the closest modeled fin, only to have it sink into the liquid easily. Pulling it out again she grinned sheepishly at the Fire type, earning a chuckle. "So can you do more than that, or was I reading too much into what the others can do?" she asked, getting a thoughtful look from the collected group. Sandslash gave a squeak and moved to tug on one of Ninetails titular appendages, pulling the now natural liquid metal pokemon along before she stood next to Charizard and asked a series of questions. Kingler scuttled up next, joining the other two temporary Steel types in listening to a description of what the evolved pokemon knew of mimicry using his liquid body parts.

The large fox pokemon then reshaped his liquid into the rough shape of Rhydon, surprising everyone with a notably less accurate result. "Wait, this is your evolution. How did Rhydon manage better?" the trainer asked the group looking to the plant pokemon. Rhydon rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then pointed at the pack. Alexa turned to look at the bag and seeing the slight bulge where the Stable Cloud was holding it up realized the pokemon's meaning. "You guys have been transforming a lot lately, so you know what it is like to change your shape." The team nodded at the reasoning, then with a laugh Charizard gave a questioning growl to Ninetails.

After receiving a short speech the reptile concentrated on extending his liquid metal. The flowing material formed into a thin shape of large wings, hiding his arms inside. Another portion moved to hide his head under a large beaked face. Finally smaller amounts spread out from his tail in mimicry of feathers. The final change was a shimmer of color as he took on the shades of Rhydon's Ground/Flying form. The end result was worse than Ninetail's attempt due to the inability to decrease the size of his legs or hide his tailflame, but still capable of being mistaken for that form from a distance.

Seeing the result Kingler nodded her body, then tapped the tiny portion of her Frozen Flame that was visible. "You think your other transformation is making it harder to do this mimicking part of the change?" Alexa asked pulling out the Pokedex to make scans and take notes. The crab pokemon nodded, then turned back to Ninetails and gave a questioning click to have the now natural Steel type continue his lesson.

Sandslash had managed to produce patterns in her waves of liquid metal spines, but otherwise had little success during her attempts at using her new form for illusionary purposes. Eevee also had trouble following the instructions from their fellow borrowed pokemon, although that was more due to his body being completely molten. Bellossom had more luck with working with her fellow puddle pokemon. Kingler made no real attempt at the skill, instead managing to draw Charizard away from the training to work on making sure they could produce all of the transformative liquids made from their altered forms. In the midst of the rest of the group training Alexa took a while to remember that Heracross had not yet gotten a chance to use the Mercury Contagion, much to the trainer's embarrassment.

The Normal/Fighting type was not too concerned as he spent the time listening intently to the others working out how to use their liquid metal to mimic other things. It was only after the Ground type began to actively experiment that he tapped Alexa's shoulder to ask for the change. "Oh, sorry. Are you ready now?" she asked moving to get the dropper ready again as the pokemon nodded with a chuckle. The rest of the group paused in their projects to watch, apparently also having forgotten he had not changed.

The blue furred mammal watched with interest as the small blob of silver material landed on his arm. His horn was the first part of him to change, becoming made out of solid metal. The next change was his arm and leg spikes melting down into small dots of liquid metal. Then his claws melted to the group's surprise, with the molten result being noticeably thicker than was normal for the group. They ended up having a consistency more similar to Rhydon's prior tar core than the thin liquid metal. His fur then became shinier with a hint of a very thin coating of liquid metal resting just under his fur. Finally his tail grew slightly longer with the two existing spikes melting like those on his other limbs along with a third small spot appearing just behind them as it extended.

"Huh, doesn't look like there is very much of it this time," Alexa said moving closer. Holding out her hand questioningly she waited for a nod from the newly changed pokemon before rubbing his fur to feel the slight amount of liquid metal within it. "Yeah, I don't think there is enough here to make a full disguise," she told him only to see the pokemon thoughtfully poking at his arm with one of his gooey claws. Motioning for her to step back he began a short series of movements. The trainer could make out times where the thin liquid pooled in one location or another briefly to alter his momentum slightly.

When she was a good couple of steps away the newest Steel type began a harsher series of movements. This time when he went for a strike the liquid metal of the closest claw or spot would shift rapidly into a short blade. A variety of shapes were displayed in these movements, ranging from simple spikes to arcing claws and thin ropes of metal. "You can mimic weapons," his trainer said suddenly understanding. An ecstatic chitter answered her, followed by the Fighting type turning towards Sandslash and asking the spiny pokemon to practice with him.

Smiling at the reaction Alexa got out the Pokedex once more to finish scanning the results from her team. "Let's see. Steel/Dragon, Steel/Electric, Grass/Steel, Fire/Steel, and now Fighting/Steel." Looking up to the groups of pokemon she considered their reactions. "Kingler might go for this again, but seems more interested in making this kind of thing than using it," she said looking over to her crab and reptile pokemon working out the creation processes. The latter was helping with an interested expression that was sending chills to everyone looking at him. "Charizard will probably find a way to use a move version, and that will end up being how he makes this change," she noted thinking of his poisonous fish-like shape and considering how much of the new material they would need to keep on hand.

Bellossom and Eevee were both experimenting with how they could alter their entire form with this change. Eevee was gladly mimicking others, having managed to almost perfectly replicate how Vulpix had looked prior to evolution and made some good attempts at other pokemon. The former plant pokemon was thoughtfully changing her puddle patterns more than her overall shape, but at the other fully liquid pokemon's request had managed her own duplication of the other pokemon. She was mostly enjoying being able to make the smaller changes, and moving was not that bad compared to other transformations she had experienced. She shifted the puddle back into the tentacles of her Soaked form, looking at the built up ridges of the mimicked limbs she lifted them as if they were solid. Bellossom hummed at the results turning her gaze to the other members of her team and how they were reacting to the change.

Rhydon was enjoying the form his new transformation substance had granted so far. It was giving him access to the mobility increase of the Grass type transformation while also keeping his appearance close to his natural form. The topiary pokemon had ended up doing more instruction to the newly evolved illusionist pokemon than he received from the now natural Steel type. Ninetails was eagerly, if nervously, listening to his stories of how he and his team had transformed using the variety of items their trainer had selected. Seeing the others' forms changing was actually proving just as useful as having been transformed in other ways himself. By this point the team's familiarity with being changed in general was notably speeding up how quickly they could adapt to a new form.

"Bellossom doesn't seem unhappy with this one, but with how her other attempts have gone it's hard to tell how much she'll actually use it. Rhydon looks like he's going to stay like this, so that should give us a way to make more a lot of the time." The trainer moved over to her pack and checked to see what they had gathered so far to work with for transformation when they traveled again. Looking up from the small variety of jars she saw a fully spherical ball of spikes pinging off a shield shaped mass of the thickened metal from Heracross's arm spots. The Fighting type was fairly easily using the metal alterations despite having just transformed, and the trainer had to smile at how happy he looked. "Might end up with Heracross changed to this for a while too," she said to herself while the others continued to practice around her.


	30. Preparations

\- Preparations -

The team was gathered outside with their travel supplied spread out on the grass. Alexa had surrounded herself with maps and guide books from other regions while her pokemon checked over the rest for any damage or oddities. They had remained transformed into the Steel type for the time being. "Johto seems to be the best bet for our next League. New Bark Town is easy enough to get to on foot, well okay with a bit of swimming, and Professor Elm can get us registered when we get there," she said tapping one of the maps, then tracing the routes. "From there we can go along the routes to hit enough of the Gyms to get all of the badges we'd need." Bellossom nodded and flowed closer, splitting a portion of the puddle that was the bottom of her body into a number of thin strands to point at the small symbols indicating the location of current Gyms.

Heracross gave a questioning chitter at the decision, pointing to himself. Alexa looked at the mammal with liquid metal spots for a moment before realizing what he had meant. "Oh, meeting other Heracross. Yeah we should be able to," she said then looked with a thoughtful worry at the pokemon. "Although it's kinda hard to tell that you are one right now, with how much you have changed." The blue furred pokemon froze, then looked over his body. The rest of the team turned to him with a hint of worry at the sudden subject. The pokemon inspected his form, moving his gooey claws over his arms while allowing them to melt slightly around the limbs. He then laughed and nodded, smiling at his trainer. After a moment Rhydon rustled his leaves in a laugh pointing at himself and telling a joke, prompting the rest of the group to compare their current bodies to their natural ones for a short time.

"Right, I guess we can just confuse some Bug pokemon. Anyone else have specific things they want to try?" she asked the group. Charizard looked over the still pointed out Gym symbols, then huffed at how the Water type symbol was well off the main roads. "We might be able to go for that one," the trainer informed her Fire type looking at the exact location.

"Alexa? I have the first results on additional changes to a Crystal Syrup user," her father called from the doorway of the lab. A large plant pokemon peaking out behind him. It had a wide wooden body held up by two massive bundles of roots with a single large root extending backward as a tail. The arms were branches with three thick wooden claws at the end and small bundles of leaves along the upper side. The pokemon's head was a mass of leaves in a mostly reptilian shape. In the center of its body was a smaller version of the plant in a massive knothole looking out curiously. Small spines covered both of the creatures with just a hint of poisonous liquid at their ends.

Looking up with her team Alexa spent a moment trying to figure out what pokemon was following him out of the building. "Is it good news?" she asked while looking at the obvious parent pokemon. "Kangaskhan?" The mother plant nodded while her child looked over the metallic pokemon moving closer.

"Fairly good, the resulting sap is about as usable as that of a normal Grass type. Which is useful on its own with combinations like Grass/Poison from using the Contagion like you proposed," the Professor replied motioning to the transformed pokemon next to him. "In the case of larger pokemon like missus Kangaskhan here it allows safe harvest of larger amounts of sap. Natural Grass types her size are rare." He looked over her team as they moved closer. "I see that you are all still using the newly created material except for Rhydon, is there a problem? I had thought he still needed a few days to return from being a Grass type."

Alexa and her team turned to Rhydon confused by the question. After a second the topiary pokemon blinked in realization and shifted his leaves and metal to green and silver respectively to clarify. "The Mercury Contagion gives some mimic ability to pokemon that use it," Alexa replied prompting Bellossom to once again change from plant patterns to octopus ones. Kangaskhan moved closer cautiously at the shift in colors to see the leaves on the other plant pokemon better.

"Fascinating, I had not realized it could be this potent of a disguise. It seems like it might even be building off of the result of the Syrup," her father noted watching the topiary pokemon allow his colors to return to their normal mimicry of his natural form. "It seems I will have quite a few things to work on when you head out again," he says smiling at her as he looked past the group to the pile of supplies.

"I'm fairly sure we aren't going to be able to stop testing new things," she replied looking to her team and noticing that she was wearing their Dark type item again. "I'm more worried we will end up with something that doesn't work how we expect, but at this point we should be safe enough right?"

"Definitely with any changes used as a move, as those will wear off after some time unless you find a Legendary pokemon to join you. I doubt there are many things your team can make that would cause permanent changes without one of them," her father replied reassuringly. "If you run into anything else while on the road you should make sure to either get all the information you can from whoever has it, or call and I can check to see if it has known properties."

"That would help. After all it might be like Legendary pokemon, when you see one the rest notice you," Alexa said jokingly referencing an old story. The worried creaking from the transformed Kangaskhan let her know the mother pokemon was aware of that tale, and it probably wasn't as reassuring to her situation. "So when we find something out there we'll call to see how it works before trying it ourselves," the trainer quickly said looking at her team and getting nods from all of them.

"Thank you for all your help," her father said as she finished preparing Charizard and Rhydon for their planned flight to Viridian. "Between what you managed to figure out about transformations allowing for moves with similar effects and the help with the Crystal Syrup you've managed to outdo my current staff. I'm looking forward to hearing about what you discover on the road." He smiled widely at her, Porygon resting on his shoulder in its Flying type form.

Checking how secure all of her supplies were for flight Alexa nodded. "I'll be sure to let you know about anything we work out. I think most of us are more interested in seeing if we can use it to make the trip easier." She chuckled and pointed to the Fire/Flying pokemon watching with interest as he adjusted the few straps that made up his flying harness and the cloudy Rhydon gave a whistling sound through his branches. "Kingler for one was glad that he's planning on handling getting us across water for now," she said with Charizard nodding in response "and Rhydon's ready to see if he'll be up for taking a turn flying us around." Rhydon flapped to move his body to a floating position just above the group.

"He isn't taking you up now is he?" the Professor asked looking a touch worried. "Carrying a load while in a new form isn't something to do lightly." The Grass/Flying type shook his head in response.

"Our first test is just to see how well he makes it to Viridian. If he can manage to keep up with Charizard then we'll try again later with a test weight," the trainer replied going over the harness and jumping up and down for a final check to make sure nothing on her was loose. "We have to get to about the entrance to Victory road, then plan out how to manage the water path. Charizard might end up using a series of changes to make sure the Water type lasts, I'm not sure yet," she confessed getting another nod and a rumble from the flying reptile. Charizard then tapped a small metal buckle on his harness and pointed to himself. "Yeah, I agree that Steel is probably a safer type to try than Poison."

"Alright, sounds like you have it covered," he said moving in to hug his daughter. "Have a safe trip."

"We will," she replied returning the hug before climbing onto the Fire/Flying pokemon's back and connecting her own gear to the harness. "Alright, straight to Viridian!" Charizard gave an amused huff and flapped to lift off the ground, quickly sending them into the sky. Rhydon followed close behind, leafy wings catching the air while his light body held itself aloft.

Flying was the least risky and fastest of all travel methods available to a trainer. Most pokemon who could fly were not comfortable intercepting a target moving towards a destination, and any pokemon large enough to carry their trainer was too big of a threat for almost all of those that were. In addition engaging in any sort of battle while in midair was not something for a trainer to do lightly, so challenges between passing trainers were even rarer.

The main downside was that you needed a very good idea of where you were going, which typically meant a minimum of having been at your destination before. So while an expert Flying type focused trainer could possibly complete a brand new region's League within a month or so by just flying straight from Gym to Gym the average trainer would only use a pokemon that could fly them place to place in order to revisit a specific location or quickly go down an alternate route.

Alexa had received all the gear necessary for flying with Charizard after the pokemon had evolved to his final stage, a gift from her father in order to take advantage of the addition of the Flying type that occurred with that evolution. She had only rarely used the equipment, and traveling to Viridian to head to the League itself had been the last time so they were quite confident in their ability to reach that particular destination. Rhydon was managing to keep up with their pace quite well despite being somewhat distracted by the sights available to him for his first real flight.

The team was planning on stopping at the Pokemart to finish getting their basic supplies for the road, then spend the night in the Pokemon Center before heading out on another League challenge in Johto. 


End file.
